2025 Soundtrack

This is a tradition. Previous year’s soundtracks are in the archives.

I converted our family to Tidal this year. In addition to feeling nice that Tidal pays artists slightly more than our previous streaming overlords at Amazon, the sound quality is better. I also like that when I search for something in Tidal, it will only show music in the results - no podcasts, no audiobooks. 

The kids were given phones this year, and I lied about their age so they could create profiles and listen with the app. My son has a single playlist and has said it's four hours worth of songs now. He'll listen while he plays Fortnite, while he showers, while he's on a long car ride with me and doesn't want to listen to my music or enjoy my pleasant conversation. I'm not as informed about my daughter's choices. I know she had some songs saved that got removed due to Disney copyright violations. That wasn't easy to explain. 

For some of these songs, I don't have anything exciting to say about them except, "The algorithm served this to me after I listened to something else," so I will be using those spaces to write about whatever I choose.

This year’s soundtrack is available on YouTube. Apple. Spotify. And Tidal.

1. George Jones - The Grand Tour

I was driving my mom to an appointment, so I tried to play something we'd both enjoy hearing. I must have generated a playlist based on Willie Nelson. This song started and I didn't know it but it's easy to identify George Jones' voice. As soon as he started singing I told mom, "Oh boy, this guy never has any good news to share," and the lyrics of The Grand Tour proved me right. 

(Wikipedia references a theory that this song may not be about a lady who took her kid and walked out on her husband, but rather died due to complications of childbirth. I do not agree. What kind of a freak would save the news of that tragedy for last? "There's the bed. Man, we used to go at it in that bed. Same with the chair. Oh yeah and over here is the nursery where my now-deceased child would have slept.")

Did you know that George Jones was called "Possum" because he had an unfortunate-looking face? I know that because I watched Ken Burns' Country Music this year. I loved seeing how nearly every country artist profiled had a dreadful childhood. With the exception of Kris Kristofferson and Reba McEntire, they all had difficult origins. You hear that Peter Coyote narrator voice over the most faded black and white photo you've ever seen, "She grew up in Gas Leak, Kentucky, the daughter of a mine accident foreman. Her crippled mother earned an extra dime a week by allowing the local sheriff to use her legs as target practice. Every month, her grandfather would come by the house drunk, chiding the small child for allowing her hair to be curly, and hitting her with the family fiddle."

I decided to watch Country Music because the podcast Blank Check was covering all of the films of the Coen brothers this year, and after rewatching O Brother, Where Art Thou? I thought Country Music would be a perfect add-on. And bam, 16 hours later I had a perfect understanding of the origins and rich history of Country.

2. This is Lorelai - Dancing in the Club (MJ Lenderman version)

I believe author/journalist Liz Pelly recommended the This is Lorelai album on BlueSky. It didn't grab me but I do love this cover. 

3. Sinead O’Connor - Mandinka

Wasn't previously familiar with this one. Why isn't this the most played song in the world?

4. Joan Baez - No Expectations

We took at trip to New York City (get a rope) in January, during the same weekend when Timothee Chalamet was hosting Saturday Night Live, performing some Bob Dylan songs no normal person recognized. A Complete Unknown was okay, and I liked the part where Joan Baez gave Bob the finger so I took her greatest hits for a spin. This Rolling Stones cover is my favorite. 

I don't post much on social media or this blog, so when I take pictures like this at the Natural History Museum, who is it for? 

5. Yo-Yo feat. Ice Cube - You Can’t Play with My Yo-Yo

Corinne asked for great running songs by female artists that she could put on a playlist for a marathon. My idea was Afro Puffs by The Lady of Rage, which I knew from hearing Death Row's Greatest Hits complication in car CD players throughout high school. The app played this afterward, based on songs similar. Ice Cube can say the stupidest shit and it still sounds cool.

6. Wet Leg - mangetout

I was excited for a number of albums this year, but the Wet Leg album was the one that really satisfied me. Somewhat disappointed with Ben Kweller, Samia, Japanese Breakfast, Black Country New Road, Beach Bunny, Car Seat Headrest, Arcade Fire, Sprints, and Neko Case. 

7. Phantastic Ferniture - Change My Mind

I was pleased to learn Julia Jacklin has this side project.

Maybe I should start using this space to cover which injuries I suffered over the course of the year. 

In the spring, I went to Wichita for the weekend. The first night, I got into bed without the plastic nightguard for my teeth and thought, "What's the harm?" and went to sleep. The next day it felt like a bottom tooth shifted an inch, and my jaw was clenched so much over the next few months that I was taking nightly muscle relaxants and seriously considering Botox injections in those jaw muscles. 

The next night in Wichita, I laid down to sleep on my aunt's couch, and before I fell asleep I had a pinched nerve in my neck. That took several weeks of stretching to fix.

The second week of July, my left knee was swollen after my weekly Sunday basketball game, and a few weeks after that it became hard to walk up and down stairs. The knee doc said I didn't have anything serious inside my knee, but I had to go to weeks of physical therapy to strengthen it and the muscles around it. No doc or physical therapist was ever able to say exactly what the issue was. Right now it doesn't hurt, but it doesn't feel right, either.

8. The Beat - Don’t Wait Up for Me

The Beat are called The English Beat in the United States, and I think we should do that for all British bands. The English Rod Stewart. 

9. Son Volt - Tear Stained Eye

I liked Son Volt's Drown during high school, but I never followed them and hadn't heard this before. 

Here's the movies I saw in a theater this year:

The Minecraft Movie

Dog Man

The Bad Guys 2

The Naked Gun

Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning

One Battle After Another

I sat between my kids at The Minecraft Movie, and neither of them laughed for the entire movie. Afterwards I asked them to rank the movie out of 10. The boy said 9.5 and the only reason it wasn't a 10 is because of "Jack Black's terrible songs." The girl said 8. So, they did find it entertaining but not funny? Or they found it funny but don't laugh.

10. The Walker Brothers - The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore

This was on the soundtrack to a movie called Turn Me On (2024), which I heard about through the Blank Check podcast. Three stars for the movie, five stars for this song!

11. Japanese Breakfast - Picture Window

Me and my aching knee stood for hours to enjoy this concert at Liberty Hall. It hurt like a bastard but we were right in front of the soundboard, in the center, on a step above the rest of the crowd. 

She said this song was about being afraid of stuff all the time, compared to her husband who is not like that.

12. The Jesus and Mary Chain - April Skies

Never really explored these guys before this year, but always assumed they had some bangers beyond The Crow soundtrack. 

13. Samia - Bovine Excision

I don't like diet soda and I haven't read Raymond Carver! I grew up calling soda "pop". In the covid era I was talking over Zoom to a bunch of temp employees, which was like monologuing to a screen of black squares. I don't know how it came up but I remember I said I switched to calling it soda because I was, "ashamed of my rural upbringing" and one of the few people with their camera on laughed.

14. The Beths - Mosquitoes

One day I was in a mood, staring at nothing, looking down at my desk in my office, hearing "I'm only here to feed mosquitoes, only skin, only blood, and little less now than there was." There are songs I like better off this album -- the boy likes Roundabout so much he put it on his own playlist -- but if I'm going with what songs will remind me of 2025 I gotta stick with this one.

The Beths was the second of two concerts I saw this year. They were good! Their encore was only one song. Fair enough!

15. Chris Farren - Cause of Death

Chris Farren led off our 2023 soundtrack! I saw he put this song out this year and had listened a few times, but I didn't listen to the lyrics until I was in Wichita for a funeral. Two weeks after going to Wichita for Gav's dad's funeral, I was back for my friend's memorial gathering. Unfortunately, the lyrics are applicable - we don't know the cause of death. 

He has 42 tags on this blog! I reread all of them. I looked up old email correspondence. I'm glad we took the time to write emails and blogs, and that I recorded old texts before deleting them to regain the limited memory space on my old dumb phones. I'm glad that all exists. 

16. Buckingham Nicks - Don’t Let Me Down Again

Alright, let's get back to movies. According to my Letterboxd, I have watched 228 films this year! I only saw a handful in the theater. In reverse chronological order:

One Battle After Another
Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning
The Naked Gun
The Bad Guys 2
Dog Man
The Minecraft Movie

I rewatched every MI film leading up to the finale, and rewatched the Naked Guns before the reboot. 

17. Wolf Alice - Bloom Baby Bloom

As the year went on, I grew tired of this from repeat listenings. The album was okay, I like Passenger Seat. White Horses is so weird that sometimes I think it's good and most of the time I think it's bad.

18. Shelly - Cross Your Mind

Some movies I watched this year that you probably haven't seen that I recommend (in no particular order):

Get Carter - Michael Caine is a mob enforcer who likes to fuck, and he's kicking ass and taking names to avenge his brother in Newcastle, England.

Light Sleeper - Willem Dafoe delivers drugs for Susan Sarandon in 80s gritty NYC. Does he like to fuck? This lady thinks so! 

(I watch movies on my TELEVISION so these screen captures are PHOTOS I take with my PHONE.)

White Sands - Willem Dafoe is a sheriff who finds a suitcase of money with a dead body, and goes undercover to solve the case.

Dressed to Kill - Brian De Palma directs this, so obviously some of these characters like to fuck. Dennis Franz is a NYC detective so obviously it's good.

Parallax View - Warren Beatty witnesses a political assassination. Does the conspiracy go all the way to the top? You bet your ass it does!

Get Over It - A perfectly silly movie about a high school play with stars in almost every role. Kirstin Dunst. Martin Short. Colin Hanks. Shane West. Ben Foster. Zoe Saldana. Mila Kunis. Ed Begley Jr. and Swoozie Kurtz. Sisqo was cast before Thong Song broke out! Vitamin C sings to camera during the opening AND closing credits!

Copycat - Watched some Holly Hunters I hadn't seen. In this one, she's a detective working with Sigourney Weaver to find a serial killer whose murders all resemble famous serial killer murders. A "copycat", if you will. Holly fires her sidearm sideways while doing some target practice and stole my heart. Why didn't her Incredibles character shoot pistols like this? 

 

19. Flamin’ Groovies - Shake Some Action

I didn't know that Cracker's song on the Clueless soundtrack was a cover. I did rewatch Clueless this year. Probably the best movie that has The Mighty Mighty Bosstones on screen.

20. BENEE - Off the Rails

Back to Michael Caine. In 2024 I watched a documentary he produced called My Generation, which had some nice footage of Swinging London but ultimately didn't have a point. Since then I've been throwing Caine movies on my watchlist when I see them on my paid or free apps. I watched 10 Caines this year - all of these were first-time watches:

Deathtrap
Alfie
Dressed to Kill
The Cider House Rules
The Prestige 
A Shock to the System 
Billion Dollar Brain
Flawless 
The Muppet Christmas Carol
Get Carter

21. Karen O and Danger Mouse - Super Breath

Books. Right. Well, just like Zuckerberg didn't get a million friends without making a few enemies, I didn't watch 228 movies without ignoring a few books. Let's see, the library borrowing history tells me I read one book this year: Intermezzo by Sally Rooney. I liked it. The library says I returned that book before I flew to Grand Rapids, so what did I read on the airplane? Oh right, I read Wild and Crazy Guys, a book about the rise of Steve Martin, Dan Ackroyd, Eddie Murphy, John Candy, et al making comedy movies in the '80s. My mom got it for me for Christmas years ago and I finally read it. Two books! 

22. Matt Pond PA and Anya Marina - Telepathy

Nick took me to the Ford Presidential Library in Grand Rapids! Last year I'd never been in a Presidential Library and now I've been to TWO! I gotta say, if you know about the Vietnam War and you know about Watergate, you do not have to read much in this museum. But you do learn that he had two would-be assassins.

23. Nenah Cherry - Buffalo Stance

See you next year.

Getting Taipei'd for This!

*this post is written by Gav as a guest blogger. Any complaints can be forwarded to DN.


For most everyone I know, I think there are a handful of things that make them feel alive: skydiving, a child’s laugh, relishing in the last sentence of a good book, completing a marathon… Last week, I had the opportunity to have one of those feelings for myself: navigating my way to a scenic place in a foreign country.


Last Saturday, I woke up, ate some breakfast and took off around 9-9:30 to head to Yangmingshan National Park, which is northwest of Taipei, Taiwan and was my first venture using the bus system. I had to get to Jiantan station to catch Red Bus 5, which would take me straight to the park. This is where the above statement about feeling alive comes into play. I like small international adventures like this. There’s really no real danger, as I’m very capable of handling a map, and it’s a little out of my comfort zone, but not like I’m going Seal-Team 6 and repelling from a chopper into enemy territory. So that morning I looked at a map of how to get to Jiantan and noticed it was a bit of a pain to take the brown line (which Huzhou station is on, which is my stop) to the blue line, to the red line (which Jiantan was on). – There was a stop on the brown line that was about a mile and a half from Jiantan, and not only that, but there was a hiking trail along the way. Cool. Two hikes today. Let’s do it!

The first (smaller) hiking trail was basically a kind of outdoor sports park called Jiantanshan Hiking Trail, and it was super-unique. As I was following the path (there are tons of stone paths in Taiwan that serve as the trails, and I often wonder how many man hours it took to lay them because they are almost perfectly laid and Taiwan is pretty mountainous.) So, as I was walking I saw a little white thingy ascend and descend quickly and discretely through the trees up ahead. As I got closer, I saw it was a shuttlecock. – Flashback: I played quite a bit of badminton as a kid. My parents house had a pretty large yard and every spring-through-fall, we had a badminton court set up. My old-man is pretty salty at the sport, having won intramurals at KU – bear in mind; I know nothing about the competition. – So when I got closer, I climbed a flight of stairs and perched along the mountainside was a large flat rock clearing with two badminton courts and two games going. It was awesome to see. These are the types of things that I love about exploring, and finding: sights totally out of the ordinary to see it in such a cool location.

So with only about three double-backs and sign-checks to confirm I was headed in the right direction, this hiking path it its purpose well and spit me out right next to Jiantan Station.


WAIT!!

I completely forgot to tell you about passing Martyrs’ Shrine.

This was by-far the luckiest part of the day, as I had no idea it was there. But along the walk from my stop on the brown line to Jiantanshan Hiking Trail, I passed a heavily military area with guards at every gate (maybe 4 gates total) and up ahead I saw about 7-8 tour buses, so I glanced at my map and saw ‘Martyrs’ Shrine’. When I approached, the shrine looked similar to much of the traditional Asian architecture with the pointy colorful rooftop-looking things and so I went into the courtyard. There were probably 75-100 Chinese tourists lining up along two sides of a red roped area that extended on both sides of two very well-decorated soldiers in white perched completely still on platforms. I looked at my watch and it was 9:57 – At 10:00 there was a changing of the guard. There were 5 (also well-decorated soldiers in white) that came out of an archway off to the side and slowly marched all the way down the courtyard, which was probably 100 meters. I completely lucked into it, and it turned out being one of my favorite photos I think I’ve ever taken. As a friend of mine agreed later; no matter where you are, a changing of the guard is always neat.

So, after locating the metro station, I found the small line of people to board Red Bus 5 and easily got to Yingmingshan Park.

I hiked and hiked to the tune of about 4-5 miles. Had lunch in a small hut like area (water and a clif bar.)

While the changing of the guard was the best photo, I think the highlight of the hike was one of the lizards I saw (out of probably 9. I tried to get a photo of the one with an electric blue tail, but was too slow when trying to grab my camera.) As I was descending a flight of stairs, a family was looking at a lizard that was crossing their path – maybe 5 inches long nose to tail, so not very big – and they were laughing, taking photos, and a boy was yelling ‘Lizard! Lizard!’ Then he saw your’s truly – a white man – approaching behind them and he got so excited when I walked by and was pointing, looking at me, and yelling ‘Lizard! Lizard!’ in English. I gave him the A-OK sign and said ‘That’s Right! Lizard!’

A while ago, a friend of mine once described what she loves about New York City, and it is a slight inconvenience involved with getting through daily life. Not to the point that you would move away, but a feeling that you have to put in a little effort for things. I liked that. – Personally, I enjoy those times I have to use the knowledge I have, a simple tool like a map, and some self-reliance to know that whatever the task or venture, it will probably turn out OK. If I had stuck to the metro system last Saturday, I never would have snapped the photos above.

If given the opportunity to take yourself out of your comfort zone this weekend, or anytime actually, I highly suggest it. If it's in Taipei, I highly suggest taking a hike.

March Madness Fantasy - Round of 64

Well, I had a nice vacation. Gav was over here, and we stared at these screens and Sean Connery and the "You Work, I Win" opulent pig flyer and the notecards marking U-Verse's channels for the 4 networks showing the tournament games.

As is March tradition, Gav brought Major Peters with him. We had some bloody marys and some beers and some Texas chili (3/4 of a cup of chili powder is ludicrous, use 1/4 cup instead) and some imitation cheetos and some beers and some peanut M&Ms and some brownies and some blueberry muffins and some OJ and some Johnsonville andouille sausages and some sweet potato fries.

Gav also helped with data entry, and I crunched the numbers this morning after restocking on groceries ahead of the class 3 snow killstorm. Here is the leaderboard - note that the "Active" column indicates if the player's team won and advanced to the current round.

Owner	Player	School	Active	Game0	Game1	Total
Brian G	Marcus Smart	Oklahoma State	No	0	22	22
	C.J. Leslie	North Carolina State	No	0	40.5	40.5
	C.J. Fair	Syracuse	Yes	0	16	16
	Brandon Triche	Syracuse	Yes	0	23	23
	Tim Hardaway Jr.	Michigan	Yes	0	25	25
	Deshaun Thomas	Ohio State	Yes	0	29	29
	Allen Crabbe	California	Yes	0	44	44
	P.J. Hairston	North Carolina	Yes	0	47	47
				0	246.5	246.5
Alex	Rodney McGruder	Kansas State	No	0	21	21
	Shabazz Muhammad	UCLA	No	0	24	24
	Anthony Bennett	UNLV	No	0	26	26
	Romero Osby	Oklahoma	No	0	47	47
	Rotnei Clarke	Butler	Yes	0	20	20
	Jeff Withey	Kansas	Yes	0	28	28
	Jamaal Franklin	San Diego State	Yes	0	32	32
	Doug McDermott	Creighton	Yes	0	34	34
				0	232	232
Dan	Nate Wolters	South Dakota State	No	0	28.5	28.5
	Ian Clark	Belmont	No	0	32	32
	Matthew Dellavedova	Saint Mary's	No	46	24	70
	Peyton Siva	Louisville	Yes	0	13	13
	Cody Zeller	Indiana	Yes	0	14	14
	Lenzelle Smith, Jr.	Ohio State	Yes	0	15	15
	Patric Young	Florida	Yes	0	26	26
	Seth Curry	Duke	Yes	0	32	32
				46	184.5	230.5
Chris	Mike Muscala	Bucknell	No	0	28	28
	Travis Releford	Kansas	Yes	0	14	14
	Gorgui Dieng	Louisville	Yes	0	14	14
	Perry Ellis	Kansas	Yes	0	16	16
	Keith Appling	Michigan State	Yes	0	22	22
	Marshall Henderson	Mississippi	Yes	0	33	33
	Murphy Holloway	Mississippi	Yes	0	33	33
	Khalif Wyatt	Temple	Yes	0	56	56
				0	216	216
Shawn	Le'Bryan Nash	Oklahoma State	No	0	12	12
	Andre Roberson	Colorado	No	0	28	28
	Alex Kirk	New Mexico	No	0	33	33
	Adreian Payne	Michigan State	Yes	0	8	8
	Vander Blue	Marquette	Yes	0	18	18
	Victor Oladipo	Indiana	Yes	0	19	19
	Juvonte Reddic	VCU	Yes	0	27	27
	Trevor Mbakwe	Minnesota	Yes	0	32.5	32.5
				0	177.5	177.5
Brian R	Steven Pledger	Oklahoma	No	0	7.5	7.5
	Sean Kilpatrick	Cincinnati	No	0	34	34
	Solomon Hill	Arizona	Yes	0	12	12
	Adonis Thomas	Memphis	Yes	0	14	14
	Ben McLemore	Kansas	Yes	0	16	16
	E.J. Singler	Oregon	Yes	0	21.5	21.5
	James Michael McAdoo	North Carolina	Yes	0	29.5	29.5
	Derrick Nix	Michigan State	Yes	0	37	37
				0	171.5	171.5
Bobby	Anthony Drmic	Boise State	No	46	0	46
	Chane Behanan	Louisville	Yes	0	8	8
	Aaron Craft	Ohio State	Yes	0	10	10
	Trey Burke	Michigan	Yes	0	13	13
	Scottie Wilbekin	Florida	Yes	0	14	14
	Durand Scott	Miami	Yes	0	24	24
	Erik Murphy	Florida	Yes	0	27	27
	Mason Plumlee	Duke	Yes	0	29	29
				46	125	171
James	Otto Porter Jr.	Georgetown	No	0	26	26
	Richard Howell	North Carolina State	No	0	41.5	41.5
	Treveon Graham	VCU	Yes	0	8	8
	James Southerland	Syracuse	Yes	0	13	13
	Elias Harris	Gonzaga	Yes	0	13	13
	Christian Watford	Indiana	Yes	0	16	16
	Michael Carter-Williams	Syracuse	Yes	0	19	19
	Reggie Bullock	North Carolina	Yes	0	30	30
				0	166.5	166.5
Gavin	Elijah Johnson	Kansas	Yes	0	7	7
	Kevin Young	Kansas	Yes	0	12	12
	Ryan Kelly	Duke	Yes	0	15	15
	Shane Larkin	Miami	Yes	0	20	20
	Carl Hall	Wichita State	Yes	0	23.5	23.5
	Colton Iverson	Colorado State	Yes	0	27.5	27.5
	Kelly Olynyk	Gonzaga	Yes	0	29	29
	Dwayne Evans	Saint Louis	Yes	0	31	31
				0	165	165
Peter	Angel Rodriguez	Kansas State	No	0	4	4
	Marcos Knight	Middle Tennessee	No	42	0	42
	Mike Rosario	Florida	Yes	0	10	10
	Kenny Kadji	Miami	Yes	0	10	10
	Kenny Boynton	Florida	Yes	0	13	13
	Will Clyburn	Iowa State	Yes	0	15.5	15.5
	Quinn Cook	Duke	Yes	0	17	17
	Russ Smith	Louisville	Yes	0	22	22
				42	91.5	133.5

Gavin noticed that the player he drafted for Georgetown has been out for some time with academic issues, so we replaced that guy with Kevin Young of KU. This was done prior to KU's tipoff, so it was nice and legal. As a result, Gav was the only owner to have all his players survive into the round of 32. Chris and Bobby had 7 of 8 players advance. Alex was hit hardest, with half of his players taken down.

The top performers came from players earning the 1.5x scoring bonus. Chris' early 4th round choice of Temple's Wyatt paid off huge, with 56 points. Each drafted play-in game (Game 0) player did okay; Dan had the only one who made it to the round of 64, earning 70 total points. Had Dellavedova hit his buzzer beater against Memphis, he'd be earning more points today.

The final player selected showed his lack of worth in K-State's loss to La Salle -- Angel scored 4 lousy points, including his terrible, terrible desperation shot from behind the backboard to end the game. Aaron Craft is on this list? OH GODDAMN IT I FORGOT TO INCLUDE STEALS IN THE FORMULA. I think we axed them last year, but I told people they counted this year. So I guess I can add them back. I'll do it next round, because it would take me another hour or so to re-format this junk.

Derrick Nix of Michigan State and PJ Hairston of UNC are the top late-round performers so far.

Here is a histogram. It's pretty fun, I guess. Some poor bastard from Akron had a negative 1 output due to turnovers. 3 La Salle players make up the top 6 scorers, including the top 2.

It's A Nice Day For A Nice Wedding - Part Two

After the ceremony a checklist appeared in my brain. Family photos. Trolley ride to next location. Wedding Party photos. Ride to next location. Entrance to reception. Dinner. Cake cutting. First dancing. Until we made it to dinner, I felt more stressed than I should have. I was riding around on a trolley full of great friends and alcohol, and yet I had a worry in the world? Gav started a "USA! USA!" chant while we were piloted through the Plaza, and I was up in my head? Not a great job by me.

Dinner was good. I wasn't too hungry but I was anxious to shove as much food as I could into my gullet so I could start drinking in earnest - I'd only had water and a shot of Tuaca on the trolley. It was more than an hour after dinner before I had a real drink, and my total for the night was one mere Jack and Coke followed by a few cans of Miller Lite.

Is this boring? Probably. All this text is just an excuse to get to this part:

When my lady and I were trying to decide what song to use for our first dance, I had one or two in mind. During the second New Pornographers concert we attended together, I waited until "Go Places" was played, suggested we use it, and she agreed. Knowing it was a 3/4 waltz beat, we assumed we could learn a waltz step for it, which we eventually did, five days before performing it, by looking at two YouTube videos and practicing for 30 minutes in our living room.

When we began to dance, Kim asked if I'd looked at my ring yet. Of course I'd had no time or mental capacity to do that, as she assumed, so it was during our first dance that she let me know she'd had it engraved with lyrics from the song: "Stay with me, go places ... Kim".

(Thanks to Bag's fancy camera and time for the photo.)

It was a great surprise, and well worth having that song stuck in my head for the following four days.

Then other reception stuff happened, then the reception was over, then we had a nice late breakfast the following morning, then we open some presents, then we drove home and that's where we live, together.

It's A Nice Day For A Nice Wedding - Part One

If I document my time in downtown Buffalo, I should probably write down some thoughts on my wedding weekend.

I waited until Rams and Alipete arrived at our Lawrence home before heading off to the big city to meet my dad - a decision I immediately regretted when Rams entered the house singing "Going to the Chapel". I shushed her, said my goodbyes, and left.

MEAL #1

This was the first of many difficult food and drink decisions made during the weekend. In all cases, I needed to choose a food with very low risk for causing indigestion, sluggishness, or other maladies. In this case, I also needed just enough food to last me until the huge rehearsal dinner. Two blueberry pancakes at First Watch in Corporate Woods, Overland Park. Pops had the same.

We then drove around a bit, stopping at Liberty Memorial to spend an hour looking at very old cannons, rifles, and sidearms. After dropping him at his hotel, I checked in at the Aladdin and schlepped all the luggage to the 15th floor. Floyd was given the suite room key while the groomsmen drove to the church to rehearse; he ordered a turkey sandwich from room service.

Nothing interesting happened at the rehearsal.

First Fridays complicated the parking situation at Lydia's, but eventually everyone made it to the upstairs loft for dinner, and eventually the staff figured out they needed a few extra chairs to seat us all. I gave an unplanned welcome speech - something about it being "Suspiciously easy" to integrate into Kim's family and "You all mean a lot to us" and "Please accept this pasta and fish as thanks".

MEAL #2

Ceasar Salad
Fettucine with Broccoli in Garlic Olive Oil
Grilled Salmon
Bracialone (rolled pork shoulder stuffed with golden raisins, prosciutto, and Montasio cheese, braised in tomato sauce)
Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Green Beans
Tiramisu

I had a glass of wine with dinner, and an unexpected drink of Tuaca after the meal, but was too concerned about ramifications to drink more, even as friends began to stop by the loft.

I got to bed around 12:30. I slept until 4:30, when I noticed my phone was chirping a text message notification. I had a hard time determining if I was really awake or if I was dreaming, and I asked myself that question at least three times before getting back to sleep.

MEAL #3

Serpentine, Nathan, Matt, Camille and I walked to the nearby Hotel Phillips for breakfast. Service was slow, but eventually my safe, non-buffet choice arrived - an omelette with bacon, onions, and peppers alongside fried potatoes.

Then came the annoyingly prolonged gap between breakfast and leaving for the church - about two and a half hours to sit in my room and wonder if I should put on my pants now? Or wait a couple more minutes? Save the tie for later I guess? I passed out the world least thrilling, most John Olerud-esque groomsmen gifts of all time. For the tornado alley dwellers: weather radios! For the coastal residents: solar/crank-powered radios! I don't know. The idea began as a survival kit for the coming end of days, but quickly deteriorated when I noticed many kit items (knives, fire starters) would be frowned upon by the TSA. This time was also used to present me with a trophy. The tradition of buying the groom a small, pathetic trophy cup with "Congratulations on your first marriage" engraved on the name plate began with Nathan's wedding. I cannot explain why. And similarly, who knows what possesses us to continue. Fun, I guess? It's pretty fun.


At the church, we sat around in a spare room with a TV, catching the end of the Royals win and a bit of "Timecop", greeting a few family and friends as they wandered by. I knotted my tie at an acceptable length on the first try, and dared not to improve upon it.

My anxiety was fine until I stood next to the pastor, preparing to make our entrance. Although I did pay close attention during the rehearsal, I had to specifically ask him if I was walking up there NOW, or if he was going in to do something first.

So, there I stood at the front of the church.

I get anxious before most anything. A few weeks ago, I prepared for a fantasy draft in a cold sweat. My heart races before scholar's bowl matches, pickup basketball games, unintimidating public speaking events...

So, at the front of the church, my breathing was good, my heart hate was up, and my face was twitching. That was a new and unwelcome symptom of anxiety for me. The muscle spasms stopped after the bride was next to me.

Hey - is it just me, or when you're standing in front of a crowd do you not really look at any faces, just the blur of humanity?

During the ceremony: very conscious of my posture and hand placement. Very hot under those lights. I listened closely throughout, but can't really repeat anything that was said aside from the "that's what she said" moments.

END PART ONE