If your life is stressful, please don’t read this post. I’d rather not run the risk of you getting high blood pressure vicariously.
Friday my wife and I jumped in the car and headed up I-476 through Wilkes-Barre into a small town just south of the NewYork border. The gasoline was cheap and there was a big fireworks warehouse a stone’s throw from our hotel. One of Jess’ old roomates was getting married, and we were invited up to Binghamton to help her celebrate the day. We checked in to the hotel, scoped out the pool and fitness center before retiring to our room. It was a thoroughly relaxing Friday night doing nothing at all.
Saturday morning was more of the same. We woke refreshed, went for a run, then a swim and ended it with God’s own cinnamon rolls and strong coffee from the breakfast buffet. Check out was 11am, so we had time to meander up Route 7 into Binghamton and “see the sites”. I stumbled upon a BBQ pit just south of the Little White Church with Spiedie subs that were phenomenal. The guy brushed on his sweet barbeque sauce with a paintbrush and I was immediately hooked. I’m sure no one suspected we were tourists, especially after we stopped by Giant all dressed up for the wedding to get 5 bottles of Spiedie marinade.
Then we showed up at the church.
The first sign things were awry was when the bride greeted us with “sit anywhere you need to”. My wife was aghast. Seems as though before we were even engaged (2 years ago for those counting), Jessica had mentioned to this girl that if she was interested, I could video tape the wedding. Just let us know, my wife had said. She never let us know.
I ran back and picked up a program. Yep, there it was in black and white: Videographer . . . . . Jesse Gardner. Now I was aghast. I didn’t have enough deodorant on for a crisis like this! A videographer with no video camera is a sore position indeed. After the initial, oh well moment, I decided that I love my wife too much to let her feel guilty all day; in a MacGuyver moment I realized that my digital camera could take video. 7 minutes and 22 seconds to be exact. So I took what I like to call a “highlight reel’ and I’ll turn it into a montage. *wipes brow*
Then it got better. Turns out that Rachel Shah (former student and great friend) was there, and her boyfriend’s parents have the same video camera that I do. They let me borrow it to tape the reception, and I got some beautiful footage of the wedding party at the reception hall with this grand sweeping lawn and a perfectly manicured pond.
Moral of the story #1: Always bring your video camera.
Moral of the story #3: Spiedie sandwiches are WAY better than wedding cake.
