[This is Part 3 in the multi-part epic describing the wedding I attended at the beginning of August 2002. Previous episodes: Part 1 and Part 2.]

Thursday, August 1, 2002. I spent the afternoon lounging around at the Stone Estate; my activities consisted mostly of listening to music, playing GameBoy, and reading out of the books I had brought along.

I considered sleep. I was feeling fairly tired, but it was not the time for sleep. It was mid-afternoon, and with all the activity around (everyone, it seemed, was very busy with a particularly productive task except me), sleep would have been pretty much impossible anyway. The hostess even offered to find me a quiet room with a bed somewhere, but I declined. I didn't feel like skulking away. Being in a completely new environment can be a unique mental stimulation of its own.

At around 16:00 (well, it must have been 16:00 plus or minus 30 minutes in some timezone), Jaeger and Kiesa declared that they were going downtown to the bank and post office, and invited me to go along. I accepted.

This little expidition provided me an opportunity to see a little more of the town of Longview. While the poor yet happy couple were in the bank, I wandered around the block, which was shaped like a triangle. It's but one of the many unique road designs of the town.

After that, they took me on a tour of the town, which included the post office, featuring an ancient 30's style architecture, the squirril bridge (a bridge made for squirrils, strung between two trees, that literally crosses over the road), some residential neighborhoods, and lots (and lots) of trees.

A few minutes after returning to the Stone Estate, I I was ready for some physical exercise. Besides, I was itching to breathe some more of the exterior air, where my olfactory sensors detected no traces of pollution or forest fire smoke.

I verified with Jaeger that nothing "official" was scheduled to take place for the next hour, and informed him of my intention to explore the area surrounding the Stone Estate on foot. He said that there would likely be nothing happening for a while, and if my presence was required, I could always be contacted using my communicato^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H cell phone, and beamed to the appropriate location. (Delete the last clause from that sentence.)

I took a vigorous pace through the neighborhood along the hillside above the town. (There's so much greenery, and some of the houses so sparesly scattered, it's hard to say exactly where the "town" ends and the "country" begins.)

At this point, I discovered my one and only pet peeve with the design of the town of Longview. Where are the sidewalks? Apparently, they were not considered when the town planners put things together. Oh well. At least there's not too much traffic on the roads.

As I walked, I listened to music, naturally. My trusty Panasonic portable, now with 5 years of use, belted out the tunes. Much of the music took on a new significance to me, as my mind again drifted back to events which are beyond the scope of this writing. Among other albums, I listened to songs from Queensryche's Empire. Did a smile cross my face? A smile crossed my mind.

Complete lyrics.

After exploring the neighborhood for an hour, I felt like I could have done so for an additional hour. The air, the trees, the sky... Everything was perfect. But I decided that since I had said I would be out for one hour, and I didn't know the sequence of events which might need to be coordinated with others, it wouldn't be wise to delay my return.

When I re-entered the Stone Estate, the bride and groom were happily perched on the paino, with no other humans in sight. The thought occurred... Hmmmmm, maybe I should have stayed out longer. One of life's minorly awkward moments. Nothing scandalous, mind you, but...

Going on a tiny tangent, throughout the weekend, whenever those two were together, in public or not, I couldn't help but wonder if, at any moment, someone might step out and shout, "Geez, get a room, you two!" Well, I guess they eventually did. :)

After a few minutes, various other people started returning to the Stone Estate. Kiesa's mom arrived with a bunch more groceries, and announced that there would be pizza for supper in a few minutes.

Shortly before the supper, the rest of the groom's family arrived in the minivan. (My memory of the names of all the different vehicles in the family is less than stellar. I know Jaeger has assigned names to each of them. Maybe the minivan is C3PO? Or not? I forget. I'll just refer to it as "the minivan" for the duration of this tale, which might make things clearer to some people anyway.)

While we waited for dinner, Captain Logan showed camcorder footage which had been taken during the car trip to Longview.

When the pizza was ready, all present gathered around the table to eat. It was during this supper that I discovered that Jaeger was marrying someone with at least some taste in regard to nutritional substances. Specifically, she too understands the distasteful nature of a fungus which some people are insane enough to eat. This substance, known as "mushrooms", should not be ingested if at all possible. The bride and myself were the only two people at the table who were sane enough to realize this obvious fact. Yay!

Shortly after the dinner concluded, a bunch of us journied to the temporarily vacated residence where many of the guests, myself included, would be staying for the duration of the event.

This house, if that is what is to be called, was an impressive place. (The word "mansion" might be overstating it, but not by much.) Elaborately and immaculately decorated, it featured a humungous kitchen, a beautifully furnished living room, multiple bedrooms (one of which had a jacuzzi), and a gigantic yard full of beautiful plants, flowers, fruit trees, and tons of open grass. Yes, whoever owned this place was wealthy. No question about that.

After getting the grand tour, we got to see where the groomsmen would stay: The servants' quarters. [Insert some silly joke about the male half of the equation getting handed the role of a second class citizen when it comes to weddings. Or so it may occassionally seem.]

The servants' quarters were actually quite extravagant as well. A separate building attached to the garage; it contained two bedrooms, one with a miniature kitchen (which included a fridge), a bathroom, and an entry hall. It wasn't quite as elaborately decorated as the main house, but still very comfy.

After the tour had concluded, and the crowds had dispersed a bit, I found myself standing in the living room of the main house. The mothers of the bride and groom were discussing plans about events of the coming days, as various other people stood around the room twiddling their thumbs.

At one point, the subject of the night before the wedding came up. They turned towards me. "You do have something planned for the groomsmen to do the night before the wedding, right? A bachelor party, or some such?"

"Um... I don't know exactly what yet, but I'll think of something."

I hadn't a clue. I knew nothing about what was available in the town, what sorts of events might be around, or... anything. But with these two matriarchs of the mighty Stone and Logan dynasties staring me down, as the eternal destiny of their offspring hung the balance, I had to answer something.

"I'll think of something of something between now and then. We'll do something good."

They didn't appear totally convinced, but it was all I could offer at the moment. I was also informed that I would need to think of a "theme" for the photography session. Something sort of silly, semi-casual pose which would include all the groomsmen.

Hmmmmmm.... A theme, huh? Aaaaalrighty then!

At this point, I realized that being the Best Man in a wedding might entail slightly more than lazing around all weekend, playing GameBoy, and then walking up the aisle at the appropriate moment on wedding Sunday. Well, I had never been a best man before. I didn't have a clue. But I was going to get one.

After the two moms went on to other things, I discussed possible alternatives for pre-wedding entertainment with an individual I will simply refer to here as "The Slayer", for reasons unexplained. (She happens to be the groom's younger sister.)

The Slayer had also been attempting to figure out possible pre-wedding night activities for the bridesmaids, and had faced similar problems. (i.e. Not knowing anything about the town, or what one does for fun in Longview.) She theorized that more ideas might come in as more people showed up, some of them sure to be more familiar with the town.

Perhaps sympathizing with my situation, having observed my face-off with the moms, she also suggested that scottgalvin.com might prove to be an invaluable resource on my side, regardless of whether he knows anything about the area or not. This, simply because scottgalvin.com is scottgalvin.com. Accept no substitutes.

After a while, more dispersal occurred, and it was time to settle down for the night. Back in the groomsmens' quarters, after a brief bit of thinking, I decided to claim the floor in the entry way as my sleeping area. Someone had earlier suggested that since the place had two beds, and there were going to be four groomsmen, that we could share, two to a bed.

Maybe it works for some people. I concluded that for myself, I would sleep better on the floor, as opposed to fighting over the blankets. Personal preference.

I located a spare blanket, found some pads conveniently stacked against the wall, and setup camp.

It didn't take long for everyone (at least those in my vicinity) to hit the hay. I guess we were all tired.

Strangely, despite fatigue, I found myself staying awake for a significant portion of the night. This would prove to be the case for all the nights during my stay.

It wasn't that the bedding wasn't sufficient. Whenever I really got into sleep mode, I had no trouble allowing my brain to go unconscious as my body rested on the padding. But there were many thoughts were in my head. Many thoughts. Some about events pertaining to the wedding. Some elsewhere.

Music, via my trusty portable, with several sets of fresh batteries in the backpack, became my company during those moments. That, and the ridiculously fat cat who liked to wander in and out at odd intervals during the night. (I learned how to secure and open the cat door to accommodate the habits this strangely charming feline beast.)

At some absurd hour on Friday morning (0300 or 0400 maybe?), I thought I heard knocking in the distance. What was that? I could see nobody through the window frame in the door.

But there it was again. Knocking. I was certain of it.

I got up and looked around. There was somebody standing out there, across the driveway, knocking at the back door to the main house.

I proceeded out the door in my bare feet, and journied across the driveway to find out who it might be.

Anya! Of course. Jaeger had said they were scheduled to arrive late on Thursday night. Really late.

Soon after I saw Anya, Yanthor popped out from around the corner. I hadn't seen him in... almost a year. We shook hands excitedly.

(Just for random fun, let's link to earlier wedding content, and confuse all the newbies by the complete lack of apparent relevance. Who was this "Neelix" fellow, anyway?)

Yanthor and Anya had desperately been trying to get the attention of people inside the house, with no luck. It was like a walled fortress. I informed them that they would probably never succeed, especially while the occupants were asleep.

Earlier in the evening, some of us had found ourselves locked out, and we barely managed to get the attention of those inside by walking around to the other end and beating on the windows. That was when they were awake. With the people inside asleep, there would be no chance at all.

I offered to take them into the groomsmens' quarters, where they could at least get inside until a better plan had been formulated. But as I attempted to re-enter, the plot thickened. When I came out to see who was knocking, the door had locked behind me. We couldn't get back in.

So, we started knocking and beating on the windows of the auxiliary house, in the hopes of getting the attention of either Jaeger or Captain Logan. Before long, Jaeger came and opened the door. At that point, we could at least get back into where I was staying.

After a few moments of jarring our brains, trying to figure out what to do, Jaeger came up with an ingeniously scheme: Call someone inside the house via their cell phone. Jaeger had his dad's number on his cell phone, so he dialed it.

Via this method, we were able to get in touch with the people on the inside of the building. Yanthor and Anya were let into the main house, where they could settle down in their temporary quarters. And we all got to catch a few winks of sleep before the next big day would begin.

[To be written eventually: Part 4, and Beyond.]