I totally married some people yesterday. I was incautious with the words “I’m marrying a couple of my friends next week” while chatting with someone and another guy sheepishly approached me wanting to talk to me about my own experiences with polyamorous relationships. That being said…. I OFFICIATED a wedding yesterday.
I think I was more scared than the groom. That’s not fair. He’d done this before. I think I was more scared than the bride though. I was highly worried that I was going to embarrass both myself and the happy couple, but by all accounts things went smoothly. I think I only stumbled over one thing and there were a NUMBER of things that could’ve tripped me up – starting with the name of the groom and moving on down to the fact that the whole “service” hadn’t been completely written till the morning of the wedding. I was worried about sneezing, or dropping the rings, or the fact that I’d never done it before and there’d been no rehearsal… but it all went beautifully.
And a blue heron flew behind us just before we kicked things off. Apparently that’s a sign of individual creativity and, after interpretation, perhaps lengthy ceremonies. It seems like I could’ve kept the audience there for a bit longer.
Right. The audience.
In general I kept thinking of it as a gig. I got there too early, adjusted the volume of Sharif’s piano (he played the walkin’ in and walkin’ out music – the latter was the theme song to Star Trek : Next Generation), pulled at my clothing and chafed at not being in charge! After the ceremony and the massive pot luck lunch, the DJ turned up the dance music and I had the Pavlovian-response to feel like I should be winding cables and trying to get Heather away from drunk guys hitting on her. Neither of those were things that I had to do yesterday.
And so another couple of friends have started the long journey of wedded bliss and I have faith in them to pull it off. The groom was handsome and the bride was stunning.
They danced. There was mirth. There were shoe changes. There was amazing food and decent weather. All-in-all, all you can ask for in a wedding despite the crazy Indian summer 90+ degree October day. I’m very, very flattered and proud to have been asked to perpetrate everything.
Of course, some people might be asking how in Hell I was ALLOWED to perpetrate everything…. I’d like to thank my time with the Universal Life Church – who will ordain anything with a pulse and an email address. On the one hand I think it’s awesome that you can be married by a friend. There are plenty of people who don’t have a close friend in the clergy or in the clerk’s office, and I definitely believe that your special day should pretty much only include your special people – but I do feel that if you’re going to have a method by which someone can do that, it should be a civil service, not a pseudo-church that passes out ministerial powers (now includes the absolution of sins! Click here for online confession!)… the ULC’s clergy cheapens the years of sober schooling that “real” ministers have gone through… I’m glad that Maryland’s marriage laws are so lax, allowing the whole process to be about as painless as it can possibly be, but the idea of Reverend Rob (rather than perhaps Civil Officiant Hinkal or something), even if it’s kind of cool, sort of distasteful.
Not the point. I totally married some people yesterday. I was honoured to do it. Happy wedded bliss to Erica and Rich!
Well, that’s the last Old Bowie Town Grille Open Mic. I’m kind of disappointed, but I think it was reasonable to kill off. We weren’t getting people out and it was just embarrassing the past month or so. I was mortified that such marvelous featured artists played to such empty rooms. There are a couple of theories here and there as to why population simply refused to materialize, but that’s neither here nor there. Though I’ve had slow periods in all the nights I’ve run – I’ve never had one THIS slow, and never had to shut down a night because of lack of population. It’s more a blow to my ego than anything else.
As is the way with things like this, the last night is always a pretty good one. We had a nice big turnout, a good variety of artists and a bunch of newcomers. But of course no guarantee that any of them would’ve suddenly become regulars, which is what the night desperately needed.
And of course something always turns up. I’ve got two inquiries from venues asking me to come back to Takoma Park, an offer in Gaithersburg and one in Gettysburg. I think though, that I could really use some free time. We’ll see.
Below – lots of photos from the wedding and then… some more pictures from Life, the Universe and Everything!
Okay, things are all sorts of out of order at this point. While visiting my friend Sonny he mentioned the “Celebrity Museum” in Putnam, CT – specifically a bizarre, dusty collection at the back of one of the antique shops in our favourite Connecticutian town. It’s pretty quiet about itself – but it’s pretty amazing…
Amongst this eclectic collection : the ball from Phantasm, a Critter from Critters, pistols from The Black Hole, Star Wars and James Bond… a worm from Men In Black, a jacket from the ORIGINAL Battlestar Galactica… all in a dusty back corner in beautiful Putnam, CT. 
(beautiful Putnam, CT) 
