June 18th

Most of you know that I was the best man in my brother’s June 18th wedding.  You were probably also present at the reception for my toast.  I want to post it here with what I would have said in a perfect world where I wasn’t nervous, had a perfect memory, and the ability to say what I want to say when I want to say it.

“Tonight, I struggle to find the right words for this occasion.  I could tell you that I’ve been Daniel’s roommate for more than 90% of his life, as if that somehow qualifies me to stand up here and talk about the couple.  I could go on about how I’ve watched Daniel and Debbie’s relationship develop over many years and it would be true.  I could echo Lynette in mentioning that from as far back as 1998, when Dan and Joe and I would spend the night together, we would talk about “our girls”.   The subject of Daniel’s antecdotes was always the same- Debbie.  I could further add that I remember walking the curcuit twice to allow Daniel enough time to tell me of his most recent church experience with Debbie.  I could tell you that there was hardly a sentence that didn’t start with at least some variation of the phrase ‘And it was funny because…'”

“Though all this is true, it seems to be superficial, cliqued, and even snubbing what this celebration is really about.  It’s not about just Daniel, or just Debbie, or even just the two of them, but rather about God’s work of uniting them, of making two into one.  Genesis 2 verse 24 states, “Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”  In light of that truth, I can now think of one word that is appropriate.”

“Would you raise your glasses and join me in this toast?”

“To Danbie!!!”

Outcome

I suppose now is as good a time as any to post again.  I’m so glad it is the weekend.  I have had a rough week of work.  We painted seven apartments this week and somehow that wasn’t fast enough.  Darn ‘stods!   Anyway, I am ready to just sit down to a book or something.  I’m working through a really interesting part of my book right now and it’s not flowing out of me like I thought it would when I started it on tuesday.  It seems the early morning at work is not a good time to have a brilliant book idea.  Oh well! 

In other news, the long awaited wedding is less than a week away.  Am I ready for it?  No! Does that really matter? No!  Will I invest some time into not making a fool of myself on the dance floor?  Heck yes!!   We went laser questing for Daniel’s bachelor party and John won the ironman game.  The prize was a free ironman game the next week.  Before that game, they had movie trivia for 2 for one passes.  Our group won all four of them.  Basically, we made out like bandits.

About a week ago, I got a bed.  My roommate, Jared, gave me his when he moved, so for the past week or so, I’ve been getting better sleep, or at least I’ve been sleeping in less bone-numbing positions.  At first, it felt weird because I’d been sleeping on the floor for so long.  It was almost too comfortable that first night. 

This is the crazy interesting thing I’m been thinking about in relation to my book.  I want to use previous experiences as a case study for answering the question:  “What do you think of destiny? Is it what you make of it or is it preplanned?” I mean that in terms of the major decisions or events in one’s life.  Do one’s decisions really influence or change an outcome, a destiny? Obviously no one can help me unlock the dialogue of this for my story but you can weigh in with thoughts and perspectives.

JA Menter 3