Almost the end

It's almost the end of wedding season. One more wedding with duties at the end of next month.

Mark and Yumi's wedding was beautiful. I've been really fortunate with the weddings I've attended so far in terms of liking both people and thinking that the bride and groom truly complement each other.

The setting was Los Gatos about an hour from San Francisco. Los Gatos is otherwise known as middle earth. The ceremony took place next to a lake amidst towering redwood trees. There was even a little hobbit house near the ceremony.
Minna sat behind me and told me that she hoped Mark was wearing a diaper because "he's going to shit his pants when he sees how great Yumi looks." In this picture, Mark obviously has crapped his pants but he had other things on his mind. That smile never left his face the whole night.
Alex, the officiant, told me at dinner that, while they were waiting for bride and company to appear, Mark's brother, Tom, was looking at Mark and exclaimed in disbelief, "Dude, you didn't trim your nose hairs?" Cut to next scene where Mark, Tom, and Alex are behind a redwood, out of sight from the guests. Mark is pushing his nose hairs in and Tom and Alex examining the handiwork.

Also, I met a 52 year-old nypd detective. He was a scary man. As part of his job, he has done crazy things. Luckily, in the course of telling me his stories, he was demonstrating on my friend the exact angle the nightstick would have to hit a person in order for blood to spray in a certain pattern. I couldn't help but think how alpha he was. I tried to get some sense of how he separated his work from his home life and the emotional factors involved with his job. I love The Wire too much. Anyway, he wasn't too keen on talking about his feelings. My guess is that he's a kitten behind bedroom doors.

Another highlight was meeting my new nephew Luke Miller. While stealing glances at him, I couldn't help but think of listening to De La Soul with his dad freshman year in college, drinking forties, and talking mierda. Not much has changed for me since then but, now, Ev's in another universe. I held Luke for a bit the next day. He's a little ball of body heat.


The wedding got capped with a memorable video testimonial. There was a camera set-up in a treehouse and somehow I was put in charge of it. I forgot about it for most of the night. But toward the end I tried to make up for it by bringing people to get interviewed. I brought over the bride's father. From what I understand, he's a very traditional japanese man. He looks into the camera and says, "Mark, if you are bad to Yumi, I will kill you." I hit stop. I tell him that I completely understand that feeling. But maybe we should try a different approach. "Ok Mr. Sato, one more time. From the top. A little different this time." I hit record and point to him. And he says the exact same thing with the same tone and the exact same inflections. "It's a wrap." That was the last interview.