weddings

Weddings; A Trip to Atlanta

July 2007

David and Tony’s Wedding – July 14, 2007

This weekend I had another wedding to attend, and this one was the polar opposite to Christine’s. My friend David, whom I’ve worked with now for 5 or 6 years, finally got married to his long-time partner, Tony. It was my first gay wedding, so I didn’t really know what expect. The ceremony was short, devoid of any religious nonsense, and focused on the two people involved. While I’ve been to my share of weddings, and seen a lot of happy people devoting their lives to each other, I have rarely seen two people look at each other the way David and Tony did, with such obvious love for each other. It was pretty special.

This was a relatively good sized bash – held at Bridges restaurant, (thankfully) stumbling distance from my home. There were a fair number of friends in attendance, and it was a big party that went well into the night. Which almost caused a major disaster for my trip to Atlanta the next morning…

Christine’s Wedding, Ottawa – July 6-8, 2007

My friend Christine and I have been friends since high school, when we spent three months in Quebec City as part of a cultural exchange. It was by far one of the most memorable things I’ve ever done, and to this day I look back on those three moths with the warmest of memories. Sadly, of the six of us that were there, Christine was the only one I managed to keep in touch with over the years (although I did find Kellie again just recently, thanks to the magic of Facebook…).

I was pleasantly surprised to receive an invite to the wedding, and was happy to use some of my accumulated air miles to make the trip for the big event. My cousin Emily was kind enough o allow me to crash at her place, even though she was hading out for a vacation of her own. We did get a chance to hang out for a bit on the Friday night when I got into town, but as always, it’s never enough time. I also was trying to hook up with my friend Erik, from Ryerson but that didn’t work out either.

The wedding itself was nice – full-blown Catholic affair, kept mercifully short. The priest was a bit over-the-top, even arrogant (isn’t pride one of those seven-deadly-sins things?), but given my lack of faith, who am I to say anything? The reception was held at the Hunt Club, and was really nice. It was a bit tough not knowing anyone, but still it was a very nice event, and I’m glad I went.

Atlanta – July 15-19, 2007

The next morning I had an early flight to Atlanta, for a conference I needed to attend. Given the festivities from the previous evening, the early flight was in jeopardy. I was supposed to catch a cab at 6:00 – only to find myself waking up at 7:00 – way late for my 8:00 flight!

So I get to the airport, only to discover that my 8:00 flight was delayed until 9:20 (which makes me on time!) – yay, not my fault. Of course there’s the slight problem that I won’t make my connection, once I get to Toronto. So they put me on an earlier flight that gives me the slimmest of chances of making the connection.

Did I mention that I was really hung over? So, five very painful hours later I’m in Toronto. So I dash up to the connections area, and wait for my bags. My flight was due to leave at 5:15, and it’s now 5:00. No sign of my bag. So I go to chat with the Air Canada people… yeah, they’ve already pulled me from the flight, and booked me on the next one – at 8:30. Sigh – my bag shows up 30 minutes later. Never had a chance…

So I drag my still-very-hung over ass up to the Air Canada lounge (thank god for that – three hours sitting in the terminal in that state might have killed me), grab some “food”, and veg out. At 7:30ish, I head over to the small terminal where the regional flights go out. Joy, the flight is delayed. Not by much. We get on the plane, all set to go – and they throw us off the plane. Improperly fueled (too much fuel – how can there be too much fuel?!?!?) – we have to wait for another plane that’s due in 20 minutes. We’ll be delayed by about an hour total.

An hour later, we’re told that maintenance is looking at the plane, and we’ll know at 10:00 if we’ll be able to fly tonight. And to add to the fun, I think I’ve got a mild case of food poisoning from a sandwich I ate in the terminal. Short story long, we get off at 11:30, putting me into Atlanta at about 1:30 – nauseous, tired, sore and very unhappy with Air Canada.

Sadly, the travel ended up being the most… eventful part of the trip. The course itself was very good – learned a lot. I did manage to get to the Georgia Aquarium for a visit one evening. It’s supposedly the largest aquarium in the world. It’s damn impressive. Their “feature attraction” is their main saltwater habitat, which is monstrous. Something like 23,000,000 liters of water. And their claim to fame – the only aquarium with whale sharks! They have four of them, mixed in with the usual assortment of reef fish. Plus some very cool extras – hammerheads and some big grouper. Well worth the trip.

On the way back from Atlanta, I was able to stop off in Toronto and visit with the family for the weekend. Given that it was right around everyone's birthday's, it was great timing, and nice to see everyone.