Transition, Traveling, Tacos, and Tieing the Knot

I need to make a public profession of my love really quick: Alliteration...I've liked you for a while.  I know you might not have noticed...but I think it'll work between us.  I just want to tell the world....I absolutely adore alliteration!!

Oh, hey there!  Thanks for reading again!  I know it's been practically been a month, but to be honest, life hasn't been super exciting for these past few weeks...until this past weekend.  We'll get there.  But in the mean time, I'll post some assorted bullet points of this past month:

• I made a 4lb pork shoulder that fed G and me for a whole week.  Sweet and tangy pulled pork for the win.  See the end if you're interested in how I made it.
• I also made tacos for a potluck!  People liked them! And then I made tacos again tonight! Woohoo!
• I maybe had the best weekend in Texas like 3 weeks ago.  I played video games, tennis, card games, board games, bunco...so many games.  I felt like I was in college again :)
• There were some really awful fires here in Austin.  They've calmed, but a ton of homes were destroyed.  I was far from them, but if you're interested in donating to their cause, let me know and I'll try to help direct you.
• We got rain finally! And storms!  I can hear my mom now, "BRANDON.  OFF THE COMPUTER, AWAY FROM THE WINDOWS, BEHIND THE COUCH. NOW."  Sure miss those days. 
• G was away for three weekends in a row, so I got a taste of what it's like to live alone.  Not sure how much I like that yet...

  Oh yeah, and my mom got married this past weekend.  Isn't that crazy?  And I got to go!  She got married in Indiana.  As I was going there with my friend Chrissy, I asked her, "Who gets married in Indiana anyway?"  She replies, "YOUR MOM!!!!"  Good joke.

But yeah, my mom got married this weekend.  Considering the antics that were had, I'm going to detail this one. 

The Arrival
I arrived with my friends TJ and Chrissy to this lake house in northwest Indiana.  People are running everywhere, and HEY!  It's my brother, my grandma, my aunt, my mom, and tons of other people I haven't seen in forever!  That was really good to see them.  And everyone was getting their hair done, makeup done, or setting up some other stuff.  I was really excited.  Time to suit up!

The Ceremony
No "I do"'s.  Instead: "Yep",  "Absolutely", and my favorite, "Anyone got a lighter?"  (That was for the candle :D )  Otherwise, everything went fairly well.  And a chipmunk got to watch too!

The Reception: Phase 1 - Dinner
Dinner was great.  Very tasty food, and some heartfelt toasts were given.  In particular, my mom's maid of honor, Maureen, gave a great toast, talking about how her and my mom were childhood friends, and even though they moved many states away, they still meant a lot to each other.  It was kind of creepy, because as she was saying these things, Chrissy (who I've known since 2nd grade) and I looked at each other, and we realized, she was also talking about us.  That was really touching.

Also.  I met some people.  I didn't know them beforehand.  But they knew me.  From this blog.  Whoa.  People read this thing who don't even know me?!  That's so cool!  But yeah, my mom shared my blog with some other people, and I got to share with them rather deeply!  They seemed to really enjoy the content on here!  I'm glad to know my experiences are inspiring others, apparently!


The Reception: Phase 2 - The Antics
I don't know if you know...but I'm a fabulous dancer.  Ok, not really. Well kinda.  See, I just kinda throw my limbs around with confidence to music at weddings, and that, not dancing, is what impresses people.  And this wedding needed just a flair of fabulous.  It was like the days of the Mother/Son dances me and mom used to go to in high school...except more awesome.  I tore the place up as I saw fit.

But man.  We had some funky dancers in the house.  Mad props to Maureen and Aunt Betsy, especially.  Someone must have fed them some PCP or something, because they were just groovin' all night long like it was their day job.

 There was also the chicken thief.  Some guy we don't know goes up to TJ:
"Hey, gimme a piece of that chicken!"
"No, it's mine!"
"Come on!  Just give me a bite!" (leans in)
"No!"
"...I'm just messing, hehe.."

I'm....just gonna leave the antics there.  :)

The Reception: Phase 3 - The Great Booze Loot
Let me preface this first: I am not condoning alcoholism or drunkenness.

Anyway, my mom purchased $1500 of alcohol for the wedding.  And of course, like anything else, there was tons left over.  So my mom says to Chrissy and TJ, "Guys, take whatever you want."  They exchange glances of exhilaration.

It was like Supermarket Sweep meets Binny's (or in Texas, Spec's).  We were running cases of beer, bottles of wine, and handles (as Chrissy called them) of hard liquor out to their cars.  They each easily got over $150 of liquor.  We were like bootleggers in the Prohibition days.  How proud Al Capone would be.


So yeah, that was the wedding in a very, very, tight nutshell.  I noticed something about going back to Chicago.  I definitely felt that although I'm always welcome there by friends and family, but something was off.  It's not home anymore. When I got back to Austin, I definitely felt more comfortable, but it's not home either.  Now I realize, more than ever, I'm in a period of major transition.  I'm longing for the day where I'm finally settled in and at peace with things.  So, all alliteration aside, let's keep Arbitrating Austin! 


Final note about yesterday.  A guy in the locker room at the gym said hi to me.  I thought that was illegal!  But anyway, after mentioning how tired I was, he said something to me while I was putting on my shoes that was really encouraging and meant a lot:

"If it was easy, we'd all be doing it."  

He was referring to working out, but I think it's highly applicable to other things in life, too.  So let that be a reminder that if you're going through something that isn't so easy, you're a special kind of person for doing so.  So keep at it. :)

Till next post!



P.S Pulled pork -> Throw apricot preserves, dijon mustard, soy sauce, chopped onions, and what the heck, chopped apples in too, and let it slow cook (I did 4 hours on the stove)  Thanks Mom!