New Experiences

So this weekend I went to Atlanta. I had a ball!!! First off I have to send some love to my girl Tash. She opened her home to me without reservation to someone she knows but not that well. I could have been an axe murderer for all she knows but she did it anyway and I gotta love her for it. Mad props to the staff at Chez Mukkamed!

She showed me parts of ATL that I haven't seen, like Martin Luther King's birth home and the King Center. She showed me the Olympic Park and all this good stuff. Drove me all over without question and I truly appreciated it.

Anyhoo, I went down to the Dirty Dirty for my good friend from college TL's wedding. I was exposed to a few new experiences at the ceremony. Such as:

- A presiding Pastor who sprinkles “sermons” with phases like “good god almighty” and “watch me now!” I wasn’t sure if it was a wedding or a James Brown concert

- A Pastor who wears Now and Later Gators that match his suit

- Being called a hater and being cursed in a sermon

Nice, huh?

As with most weddings, it was surrounded in a cloud of underlying drama. Mainly because she was marrying a manipulative (or manipulated) brother with control issues. TL is also Vic's linesister, so she went as well with the Earlster. But I digress. The most disturbing thing about it was the cult-like "church" she and her new husband are members of. I put church in parenthesis because it isn’t even in the realm of a normal church. First off it’s located in a strip mall. Secondly, it had no religious elements in it at all. Not even a cross. Thus it’s questionable as hell.

The other element that was distressing was the Pastor who married them who will be referred to heretofore as Pastor Now and Later Gators or Pastor NLG for short. His presence was the most imposing over the entire proceeding. He clearly called the shots and reveled in his position as shot caller. From who could take pictures when to his “theme” music, Pastor NLG made his mark. He made the whole thing about him and him only. This didn’t sit well with the “New York Party People” as we were referred to.

Pastor NLG pointedly made it clear during the ceremony that “selfish haters” or in the King’s English, basically anyone who opposed the union (namely us the NY Party People) would be cursed. Awesome right! I won’t go into the reception except to say that we were offered the opportunity to purchase a DVD of the wedding. *Sigh* TL deserved a better wedding than this.

On the upside, TL was stunningly beautiful. More beautiful than I’ve ever seen her. And she was beaming with happiness the entire time. Which is all you can ask for I suppose. It’s just hard to watch someone you care about make a mistake. Which is what Vic was feeling. I am happy that I was there to help her and the rest of her line sisters hold it down a bit with some rarely shown positivity. I hope I was helpful. I will be in Vic’s place next year I’m sure when my LS marries someone I just know I won’t like. But what can you do? Short of say dude, the person you are marrying sucks balls. But that never goes down well does it? *Sigh*

On the further upside, the wedding provided an opportunity to see some folks I haven’t seen in ages and it was wonderful. We ate dinner and rehashed what we witnessed and cracked jokes and it was just like old times. It felt great. Tasha also got to meet my peeps and everyone got along and that was major coolness.

I also got to meet B from the Careerbuilder crew and she was great! We chilled like we knew each other for years.

All in all, I enjoyed myself and I actually feel better than I did when I left. Cause NY was getting to me. The atmosphere change did me good.

Tomorrow, it’s back to the grind. Oh joy! I get to have my nerves ground down to a nub. It’s just too much to think about right now so I won’t.


Later………………….