I do...well, maybe not yet

So this past weekend, I was out in Boston for my cousin's wedding. It was definitely an interesting, non-typical wedding for sure. Most weddings don't take place at a 300 year old house that also serves at a youth hostel. Most weddings don't have barbecue ribs as the main dinner course. Most weddings don't take place somewhere with no TVs. NO TVs! I saw none of the Michigan-ND or OSU-USC games. It was excruciating crouching in the corner trying to get a signal attempting to furiously text Google for score updates like Gollum worshiping the ring. All that being said, I had a blast. A few reasons come to mind.

First of all, weddings are just naturally predisposed to fun. Ample booze? Check. People drinking said booze that normally don't drink? Check. Music and people making asses of themselves on the dancefloor, convinced by the chardonnay that they are Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers? Check. And its just an inherently positive and upbeat event. Its just set up for a good time, you know something interesting is going to happen, like when you see that drunk girl in stilettos tottering down an icy sidewalk.

Drinking with relatives. This is something you don't really grasp until you are of drinking age. That uncle you always thought was kind of cool? He really has a wicked sense of humor that he was never relaxed enough to unleash cause he had to be all mature for his nieces and nephews, or some similar constraint ridiculously put on him by others. Really, you have not lived until you see your Grandparents drinking out of Das Boot. Yes, you read that right. A boot appeared and was being passed around and my Grandparents, both 80+, hit that shit like Floyd Mayweather. I was a bit misty-eyed. I was soo stunned I scarcely realized that both my parents were getting their sip on as well. Including my mother who hasn't drank a beer since Prince was on Apollonia. This also marked the first time I've truly been "feeling no pain" around my parents. I realized this with a sinking horror as I was drunkenly eating a bagel like an idiot at the hotel and listening to myself speak. The next morning my little sisters were questioning about my inebriated state last night. I kindly informed them that they were tripping and I was merely tired and hungry. Oh my, I'll miss when they aren't so easily mentally redirected. I actually cut myself off after I was beckoned to the dance floor by my cousin who asked to me teach them the Soulja Boy cause I'm a good dancer. However, I proceeded to execute an aborted version of the Dirty Bird. I then shamefully exited the dance floor cause I realized I was too drunk to execute a dance created by a 16 year old with the lyrical prowess of Sloth from the Goonies. I wanted to go back to Saturday and punch myself in the face.

Finally, weddings help me put my life into focus. As I caterwal haphazardly through my early 20s, I find myself examining my maturity and how I wish I was this and that, but yet I'm not really sure. Do I want a significant relationship or do I want to continue being a self-sufficient sort of fellow? Well examining weddings, I do like somethings. I mean, come on, I love being the center of attention, and there is no grander stage than being the groom in a wedding. Well besides your pesky bride. Plus there is an exquisite amount of control into making it your ideal day. Sweetness right? Then I am quickly drenched in the realization that no matter how much I have grown since college and how much more mature I may or not be, I am NOWHERE near ready to be joined in everlasting marital bliss. The thought of it all is staggering to me. Like when you are a kid and everything in the future seems so daunting, like high school, and driving, and not wetting the bed? Like that. But I am comfortable enough with myself to realize that like all the things I mentioned, this will come in time and I am perfectly content to wait. No need to hurry growth, right Peter Pan my friend and role model?

PS, if you have never had strawberry rhubarb pie, you need to have it immediately or hereby surrender your sense of taste cause you depriving yourself of heaven. And if you have had it and don't like it, go eat something you do like, probably brussel sprouts or vinegar ice cream...weirdos.

So Hip-Hop decided to save my musical life yet again recently. As I found myself being bored with some of the music in my life, Kid Cudi and Jay-Z dropped their new discs. Hova's Blueprint 3 is predictably amazing with tight rhymes and sick beats. You really need to get all up in that. Empire State of Mind with Alicia Keys is just ridiculous and Off That has one of those undeniably Timbaland beats. That's a good start. But more importantly, Kid Cudi. This dude just kills his first disc. He has the Lupe feel to him and he is just a lyrical badass. I mean, Day and Night was a catch ass track, but this CD is just brilliant. Its indie, electronica, and hip-hop somehow blended into one. Soundtrack 2 My Life is one of the most honest, raw songs I've heard in ages. Its got a Matisyahu-like feel to the chorus. This is how you open up a CD? Just ballsy and exactly how you show you're about to throw down a nasty album. Up, Up, and Away is just amazing (would have been my summer jam if it dropped a bit earlier) and Pursuit of Happiness is creative as hell. So do yourself a favor and spin both of these while eating strawberry rhubarb pie and silently thank me for creating you a sensory utopia.

"I got 99 problems and they all bitches..."

JW