September 13, 2002

My brother's wedding. Beautiful setting for a medieval ceremony. Charley's grandmother's house. With the pond in the back yard. Renaissance costumes for the bridal party. Some guests even came dressed for the occassion. It really was a lovely evening.

Johnny is my youngest brother, the bicentennial baby. I was 19 years old when he was born. I didn't spend very much time with him when he was a baby. I moved out of our parents house shortly before he was born. I thought I was ready to be on my own and feared that I would be saddled as the baby sitter. So, off I went, to do my own thing.

I moved back home when he was in kindergarten for a short time before I moved to South Dakota. I came back home in 1987, he was 11 and about to lose both of his parents to cancer. I kept him safe until our parents home was sold and he then moved in with our sister, Susan. My parent's had this all set up in their wills. Susan was the logical choice to raise him because she was married and had a son. So Johnny would go back into a family setting. I was agreeable to this because that's what my parents wanted.

I also had a brother named Frank, who died from a heroin overdose in 1998 while I was recovering from my back surgery. He was in the process of a divorce from his wife Donna, and they have three kids. I've added a picture of his wife and kids in the flickr site.

So anyway, the setting is beautiful for the wedding. My sister-in-law and the kids show up in picnic clothes. They must have missed the part in the invitation, that it was a wedding first, bbq reception. Donna looks like a hooker, as usual. Frankie is stoned, Danny is quiet, and Kristin (Donna Jr.) looks like a 15 year old tramp. They are definitely my brother's kids. I don't know them very well, I have never spent any real time with them. I don't feel guilty about that because I never agreed with how they were being raised, I was half-way across the country and it was best to just keep my distance.

The ceremony was lovely, the reception was fun. Kristin started drinking screw drivers and my Aunt Sylvia was trying not to have a stroke. The more Kristin drank, the more obnoxious she got. Donna, the parent, just lets this go on like it's an every day thing. I try to be the stern aunt, but it falls on deaf ears. Kristin proceeds to puke all over the table while we are eating. It was just so much fun. Anthony and I stayed for a short while after the music started, we wanted to watch everyone dance. We really didn't stay for very long. I left thinking that I wished Donna and the kids hadn't come.

I found the wedding pictures today, and was looking through them. They are the worst wedding pictures I've ever seen. Charley's mom actually paid someone to take them. Most of them are blurry, hardly anyone knew that they were getting their picture taken. My favorite one is above. 9/13/02 was Friday the 13th and it was also a full moon!

Update! My sister told me this evening that Kristin is stripping at a local club. Isn't that special?