I know, I've mentioned names, it's shocking. I felt it was appropriate if I'm going to celebrate the event.

First off, I let myself sleep a little later than I had intended, but I wasn't worried because I knew I wasn't in any real hurry. That is, until I discovered I hadn't packed my new pants that I was going to wear at the wedding. Well, frig. I put myself into hustle mode and boogied after that. I left Provost at 8:36 and was at a shopping mall in Edmonton at 10:58. New pants bought! Triumph one for the day.

Got to the hotel, showered. Got dressed and looked stunning for the wedding in my co-worker's orange, beaded halter and my new black capris. Wahoo! My hotel-mates were looking very good as well. Australia-boy in his tux as the best man and his sister is always good looking.

I sat with the gay doctor and the best man's sister at the wedding and we were awful. Giggling at everything but trying to be quiet about it. I let some bubbles go in the church. The first hymn we sang had a line in it about us being God's members. The first passage read from the bible proclaimed that the wife was the property of the husband. Good times! The pastor of the First Mennonite Church in Edmonton is fabulous! She turned most of my giggles into reverent thoughts of what this occasion meant to Owen and Jennifer. I had to tell her after the ceremony how much I'd enjoyed her words and her passion in them. She talked about how important the decision to get married is and wasn't afraid to mention all the crappy things that might happen in the course of a marriage. She very politely mentioned that Owen is levelled headed and likes to talk a lot (BS) and Jennifer is the one in tune with her emotions and is able to cut through all Owen's big words (BS). By the time the wedding ceremony was over, I was in tears, as usual.

After a quick stop at the hotel, we went to the hall to help decorate. We were busy there almost the entire time up to the reception. I hate streamers.

And the reception was great. Short on toasts, but the ones that were there had so much value and meaning in them. I was especially moved by both Owen's parents getting up at different times to welcome Jennifer to their family. I almost cried again. And Owen's mom was smokin' hot! Kudos to her!

She a blushing bride
He a delicate flower
Both now joined as one

This haiku was mostly written by Owen himself for his brother's wedding. The last line was changed to protect the innocent.

Owen asked me to say good things about him here when the evening was almost over. I have no choice because there was nothing bad to say. Owen looked really good and I told him so in the receiving line. He mentioned that he'd lost 45 lbs. Kudos to him. What I was really talking about was the smile on his face at marrying Jennifer. It's making me cry right now thinking about it. True happiness can be seen in a smile and that was it right there. It's one of the most beautiful things in the world because it's unfortunately more rare than I'd like.

The evening included lots of dancing after I got my second wind. And lots of talking with my Calgary friends. I miss them all terribly, but they aren't all in Calgary anymore. I wish I had more time off work so that I could go see them more often. I danced so much that I could barely walk for my ankle was quite unhappy. I didn't really care because I was having too much fun.

There was an open mic for a while and I should have told this story, but was feeling a bit shy. None of the stories we could think of about Owen ended in a proper fashion so we decided to just stay silent. This one is no exception. So, Owen, here it is. When I first met Owen, we were spending every Thursday night at the Unicorn in Calgary drinking, etc. There were some of us that showed up every week and were served by the surly pregnant barmaid Kelly. As everyone knows, Owen loves to cook. So on Valentine's Day he hosted the Bitter Singles Dinner Party(TM). There were quite a few of us invited and I was late because I'm not real good at public transit. So I started off the evening with some straight scotch to warm me up. The menu was filet mignon with some sort of sauce, some vegetables, a great cold soup, and some dessert. The liquor and wine were flowing quite freely that night. One of the guest's ex-boyfriends tracked her down at Owen's because he thought they should get back together. I was the co-hostess for the evening and was helping serve. Bad idea. I managed to spill steak juice on someone's head. And like all successful Owen stories, someone ended up being violently ill from the drink. Good times!