For now, only one story is playing out because only one of us was conscious. The pick up with Olivia's mom was delayed because she can never do anything without basically packing her kids into the minivan, and the more kids you have, the more dangerous the variables become. Olivia's pjs, for example, turned into emergency wear for her younger sister, who decided to throw up on herself. It was at the meet up location that I got a call from the bridesmaid, my sister Hope, who told me the tale of what became of my father the previous evening.
Apparently my father overlooked the gigantic neon sign of the dinner's location, a barbeque restaurant in a cluttered development of shopping and dining. I must admit that I did this too, however, I did not do what he ended up doing. All I recall is something about him doing a U-turn and ending up on the side of the road, in a ditch, or just pulled over for an illegal U-turn. Whatever he did, the cops were soon there. Now my father is not much of a criminal, far from it, however he is cheap & likes to cut corners, which can get him in more trouble than doing things right the first time...let this be a lesson. It turns out he has an unpaid traffic violation, one that is severely late. The standard protocol for this is overnight in jail, and a hearing the following morning. Here's the deal, first off, this violation is something my sister knows of well, he explained to her earlier in the year that he kept sending a payment for his ticket and they kept returning it, because of insufficient funds, late fees and collection fees. He asked her to borrow some money to cover this ticket, she wrote a check for $350 and he cashed it. Clearly, however, he did not pay. Now, of all moments in his life, not covering his ass got him in jail, and since he could not pay it the following morning, the morning of his daughter's wedding, he was going to have to stay in jail when he should be giving away his youngest daughter.
It was shortly after that phone call that I got my own daughter. She was very happy to see me and to be in another wedding. We hightailed it back to Kansas City, where at this time Ed and my mom/stepdad were having their own hustle. I called Taylen's mom to see if she would be willing to drop him off at the hotel for some gas money, gratefully she did.
All I know about Ed's adventures at the time is that after they picked him up and went back to the hotel they realized that the van they were renting for the wedding party was right back in midtown where they originally picked him up, so they had their own issues going on as well.
Well we made it to the hotel and shortly after Taylen showed up, he looked a bit uncertain, not fully realizing he was going to see daddy in person for the first time in months. We all got into family mode quickly, playing around in the lobby. There was only one room reserved at this hotel and it was full of bridesmaids, mothers, and mimosas. Once they cleared out, stopping briefly to see us for the first time (Grace looked beautiful); giving a quick hug to Olivia and heading to the photo shoot, we went in to discover the remnants of their hotel room. Taylen took to eating ice while Olivia learned how to record with Ed's camcorder (we were hoping she would shoot from the front row). Tay & I had a quick bath, then I began dressing him and myself alternately.
We made it to the chapel and it's ongoing photo shoot. Inside Ed and I determined that setting up behind the priest and shooting out towards the audience while getting the bride and groom's face in was not going to happen. Also, Ed left one of the tripods in his Blazer, so it was up to him to hand record and hope the best for the other angle.
All this running around with two kids and you might have thought of something, food, and sure enough, my kids were starving. While we began taking party in the photos, the photographer had candies for kids who stood still enough or looked straight enough into the camera. They ate them greedily, and I asked Ed to find some chicken nuggets. Find them he did, along with a my little pony and astroboy. Kids were fed, Ed was a big time saver on that front, don't know what I would have done without this guy.
Before you know it, the shoot is over and wedding was to start in about 30 minutes. Taylen, unpracticed, is suppose to be the ring bearer, and I had to walk my mother down to her seat. Then, I had to take over my father's roll, just after Taylen's job. He was asking for daddy but somehow knew what to do and ran down the aisle to my mom and step dad. So it's around 6:30 at night, I'm on two hours sleep, been nonstop up until this moment, my sister's nervous arm grasping mine, and the person running the show comes up to us and says "they shortened the wedding dance, you can walk normal..." the doors open, and we flew down the aisle as if her dress was on fire, passing an usher who said "nice run..." thinking nothing of it, arriving at the podium to sit out about 90 seconds of the song playing. My sister Hope looked bewildered, though lovely, in her bridesmaid's position, and began laughing nervously, Grace joined. The priest had this fake smile on his face looking about the room, whispering "someone in a hurry?", I sat with a smile on my face, playing as cool as I can, whispering to Grace "Who is this guy? should I ask for a dowery?" motioning to Dave. The song finally ended after what felt like an eternity, and soon the priest asked who was giving away the bride.
"On behalf of the Zentz family, I do."
I circled around her dress and seated myself by my stepdad, taking over roll of pacifying Taylen, I couldn't see tiny Olivia, who was on the other end of the Zentz family, but if I did I would've noticed her holding a camcorder instead of recording with it, oh well...
Reception and following day to come later.
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