Day 142

Later today, we leave for Cleveland for the big Fox/Green wedding. We are driving in with Casey and a car full of our wedding gifts that are more than 4 years old and are still in boxes. What is so funny is that when we bought this condo, my mom and dad drove all of these gifts in the boxes from Cleveland to Chicago. They have sat in the boxes now for three years, and we are now schlepping them right back to my mom's house so they can sit there until we move into our house in August. We have our inspection tomorrow as well. Very excited. But on to the most important aspect of the weekend. Sean is my best friend from college. I was lucky and privileged enough to be asked by him to be one of his co-best men with his best friend from high school. Its funny to me because we have come such a long way. I am saving my best material for my rehearsal dinner speech tomorrow night, but I remember Sean from freshman year, yet he has no recollection of me at all. He said the only thing he remembers about me was that I was "that weird guy with the station wagon." We were in different groups of friends - mine all dropped out after one semester. When I went back to school sophomore year second semester, I moved into an apartment with three of his friends (Caplin, The Buatch, and Franco) right next door to him. It's been on since then.

Pretty much every KU hoops game I went to in college was with him. We were roommates Senior year. We went on a graduation trip (even though I hadn't graduated yet) for two weeks in the Summer of 98 (known in these parts as "The Summer of Todd"), driving from one end of California to the other. Or as we call it, "our gay trip - romantic getaway." We flew into San Diego and out of San Francisco. Visited and stayed with randoms that we knew along the way and had some classic moments (The Barb photo, Eldy's Grandmother, me being sick for a change, the haight/ashbury scam, PB, the birth of the "Confirmed, unconfirmed game). We hit 4 of the 5 California ballparks for Baseball games. Unfortunately looking back, we tailored out LA portion of the trip way too much towards the movie Swingers. The trip was amazing and a part of the best summer of my life. What I can't believe looking back now is that trip was 8 years ago. Where did the time go?

Anyways, Sean is from Chicago and I moved here right after school. We've kept right on where we left off in Lawrence here for the past 8 years. I saw my man struggle and go out on a million bad dates. He was my original set-up guy. Then Nancy Green moved to Chicago. I have known Nancy for years as she is a friend of my cousin Debbie from high school. When Nancy first move here, we went to lunch and I told her I had a guy for her. Sean was having a party at his house that weekend, so we set it up that she would come to the party. Essentially the rest is history. I am proud to be standing with Sean on his wedding day, as he did with me 4 years ago in the same place - Oakwood Country Club. Again, I am saving my good material for tomorrow night and for my toast at the wedding on Saturday, but I just wish them both a lifetime of health, happiness, and KU Basketball National Championships.

Song of the Day: In honor of Sean - his favorite tune from our KU era "Hit Em Up" by 2Pac