Already off to a bad start...

I've had this blog a little over a week and already, I've gotten lax on posting promised things. I promise to make the Top Five up to you next Friday.

In fairness, though, this week has been quite busy. My buddy Matt got married this weekend to my friend Amanda. I was the best man... which was a LOT of fun, but also a LOT of work!

After the rehearsal dinner Friday night (at this great Italian restaurant in downtown Indy called Amici's), I had all the guys that came up for the wedding (9 in all) over to my place for the 'bachelor party'. I have to say... it was a blast! I made a bunch of my famous bacon-wrapped shrimp with homemade cocktail sauce (recipe to follow), which went really fast! I think everyone got their fill, though! Matt's brother Ben went out and rented Rambo which we 'watched' (I use the term loosely because most of the time, we were making fun of Rambo's unintelligible, monosyllabic speech patterns or the mindless violence dolled out so easily). All in all, we just hung out and enjoyed each other's company, which was SO much fun! We really got a chance to just relax.

After Rambo, Matt's three brothers split and the rest of us (groom, groomsmen, and Matt's friend Daniel) slept over at my place. The next morning, I got up and made homemade waffles with my Belgian waffle iron and coffee in my new French press! I also fried up the bacon that remained after the bacon-wrapped shrimp were finished. It was quite tasty!

Then... SET-UP! The males spent almost the entire day setting up for the wedding... and since it was an outdoor wedding, there was a lot to do! Putting in stakes to hang flowers from, putting up tents for shade, setting up chairs, filling up balloons... we were out there for about four hours or so! We got there at 10:45-ish (well, me and my group did) and pictures didn't get started 'til around 4:00-ish.

Outdoor wedding in August - HOT... but still not as hot as it could have been. The temp was around 90, which for an August day in Indy, isn't that bad. We wore our jackets (my fault - I told Matt I could handle it), but fortunately the ceremony was only about 10 minutes long. It was a really great ceremony too. Matt's dad officiated and was funny, endearing, and sniffle-inducing. He made Amanda cry, which is saying something.

The food was great, too. Matt and Amanda served all the guests personally, which I thought was a great take on the receiving line concept. They also had matching "Bride" and "Groom" aprons. There was chicken cordon-bleu (or chicken stuffed with cheese and broccoli), twice-baked potatoes, fruit, salad, Italian bread, and some awesome mixed veggies. There was a huge assortment of cakes as well, none of which I got to try because I was out...

DECORATING THE CAR! One of my favorite parts of being a groomsman has always been decorating the transport to the honeymoon! One of the groomsmen, Chris, and I went out Saturday afternoon and grabbed a bunch of stuff from Wal-Mart to decorate the car. I won't go into details, but the end result was quite humorous and (for the most part) enjoyed by all in attendance. A job well done, I think!

Got in late Saturday night and got up early Sunday morning. With the little sleep I'd gotten on Friday and the crazy hectic Saturday, I was really starting to feel the strain. Two Sunday School classes later, and 30+ members of the youth group are sitting around several tables at the Buffalo Wild Wings in the Washington Square Mall to send off our summer intern, Jon Kundrat. When he first came to Indy First at the beginning of the summer, I took him out to B-Dubs as a way of welcoming him (the youth pastor was gone that Sunday, so I was in charge). So, someone thought it would be a good idea to send him off on his last Sunday the same way... only this time, invite the whole youth group! It was a great time of spicy wings, great fellowship, and competative trivia gaming! (I won two of the six games I played!)

After turning in the tuxes from the day before and stopping by the comic book store, I returned home at about 4:30 for a nap... which lasted only about an hour, but still managed to rest me. I got a call from Matt's older brother Dan (with whom I roomed for a semester in college) and his wife, Mary Kay (another dear friend from Olivet) who wanted to hang out. So, we went in style! We went to Stir Crazy, one of my favorite new restaurants. They serve Asian fusion cuisine - and have some great dishes! I tried the market bar for the first time... and have to say I really enjoyed it! It's basically set up Mongolian style... and you get to choose all your veggies and sauces and make a custom dish that's really quite a unique experience! I got some Szechwan shrimp with pea pods, squash, bell peppers, chili peppers, mushrooms, onions, ginger, and garlic. And, of course, we finished off with dessert! I got their signature Pyphoon while Mary Kay got the Chocolate Fondue - both awesome!

Then we decided to go see Baby Mama in the dollar theater in Greenwood. It was alright - very funny in places, but a bit formulaic and just not what any of us were expecting out of Tina Fey. Steve Martin was very funny, as were Amy Poehler and Greg Kinnear... but just not a great movie, all in all.

Well, that's all for my weekend. Hopefully, I'll be able to update tomorrow with a feature I'd like to call Hot Topic Tuesday!

Title Origins and Friends from the South

It occurred to me that I didn't include an origin of my blog title in my first post. I think it's important, seeing as how only myself and one other person know of its significance...

When I was in middle school, I had two very good friends, who I remained good friends with through high school. The three of us talked regularly and had known each other since elementary school. One of these friends had a habit for telling stories that the other two of us found... a bit hard to believe. They weren't completely far-fetched, like the kid who told me he had the Boardwalk piece in the McDonald's Monopoly game (remember that?) or the kid who said he'd seen every Bugs Bunny cartoon ever made. You could tell those guys were lying right off. For my friend, though, it seemed as if these things could have actually happened, but the fact that so many of them happened to him in such rapid succession seemed all too unlikely.

I mentioned this to my other friend, launching he and I into a conversation about the dubious nature of his claims. "You know," I said, chuckling to myself, "talking to him is like a bunch of unlikely fantasies and improbable realities." We laughed. A lot, actually. In fact, we thought that little phrase was so funny that we decided, should we ever write a book - together or separately - we should name it Unlikely Fantasies & Improbable Realities. In fact, until very recently, I had a plan to publish a book of short fiction entitled just that. (Who knows? I might still do just that, but I really haven't had much time for writing any more than the occasional blog post lately.)

Upon starting this blog, I wracked my brain for a good title, to no avail. Should I use a line from a song? A rewording of one of my favorite quotes? A phrase in some foreign language that carries deep and significant meaning for me? I couldn't quite find anything that fit... until I remembered the above story and how amusing it had been at the time. 'What better name,' I thought, 'to describe my life than one that seems simultaneously absurd and deep... like me?'

So, there it is... the origin of my blog title.

"And now for something completely different..."

My friend Ben came up yesterday from Tennessee, where he lives with his wife Amanda. Ben and I have been good friends since kindergarten, which makes him my best and oldest friends. Being so far apart is difficult, to be sure, but it's always good to get together and get a chance to catch up, reminisce, and just chat it up. Ben is on his way out to the Ukraine even as I type to spend some time with his father (a professor at Indiana Wesleyan University). On his way up, he swung by and hung out for a bit last night, which was a lot of fun.

We talked for a good long time, something we both always enjoy. Then we went to the grocery store and made some purchases (I needed some food in my apartment... BADLY!) and then headed to Red Lobster for dinner. After starting out with some steamed oysters and some of their AWESOME Cheddar Bay Biscuits, we both tried (and enjoyed) the Georgia Peach-Bourbon Shrimp and Scallops, which featured awesome grilled shrimp and scallops (with a peach bourbon glaze) on a bed of wild rice pilaf and a side of seasoned broccoli. It's one of the current menu specials Red Lobster is running and was extremely good!

After dinner, we swung by my apartment and had some Starbucks Organic Sumatra-Peru blend coffee in my new French Press (which my mom and dad got me for my birthday - thanks, guys!) while listening to The Swell Season and Sam & Ruby - which is to say, a great brew and great tunes with a great friend! After a while, our good friend Ian showed up and we chilled and chatted a while longer. Emilee (my kid sister) also hung out for a bit. After she left, the guys decided to head over to the Greenwood Barnes & Noble. I picked up the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly (which featured an article about the upcoming Watchmen movie - based on one of my all-time favorite graphic novels) and a literary magazine called Third Coast. I've often thought about submitting a story to a literary magazine, but have yet to actually do so. So, I'm looking at this one in hopes that it might be someplace I can send a story. Who knows? Maybe I can get published before next year is out?

Pray for Ben, if you think about it. He'll be in Ukraine for about ten days with little to no contact with his friends and family in America. Also pray for his wife - this is the longest they've ever been apart from one another since they've been married. Mostly, though, pray that God's will is done in their work in Kiev (pronounced, as I discovered yesterday, Keev.) Thanks!

Ciao!