Manlio Rules

So, Alex and Karen got married last weekend in NYC. It was super fun, and they got married successfully. I’m stealing a lot of yougna’s photos for this (she was the official photographer), so the quality should be much better than my drunken point and shoot style.

So, after getting a little too drunk thursday night with some people from work, i arrived early friday morning at JFK. I met up with maggie (one of the bridesmaids) at JFK, and we began the long subway ride into the city. We were both so shot that i don’t think we said a word to each other after sitting on the subway. This was my first time really back in NY since moving, so it was a little strange seeing all the subway stops flying by. I never realized how much of my “getting around ny” memory was all short term memory, i kept getting surprised by subway stations. as in: “oh wow! Jay St! i remember Jay St!” luckily i didn’t add vocals to these surprises.

I got to Lyandra’s house around 9AM, dropped off my stuff, and ran to meet my mom in union square. Mom and Mont were passing through northern NJ on her way back from NC, and stopped off to see me for like an hour. We hung out with the dog at the Union Square dog park, and mostly walked around and watched the dog bug people. one old woman got really snippy and was like: “please hold your dog!” (we WERE holding him) and started shaking her head and muttering like we were the rudest people alive. I find that particular brand of old school NY snippiness intolerable, so i walked over and told her that if she asked more politely, she’d probably get a lot further in life, which she found to be totally offensive (which was sort of the point).

anyways, then i met up with matt and neil for a quick lunch, and caught up on the state of things (dating, school, work, life, etc…). then i needed to go take a nap, so i went back to ly’s place and passed out.

I woke up at 4:45, which was bad considering i was supposed to be at Kevin’s by 5:15 or so, and it was in BK. so i threw on some clothes, and rocked it out to brooklyn. My long term sense of direction kicked in and i was able to find Court St. without calling.

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the rehearsal dinner was delicious and a ton of fun. I met Alex’s mom for the first time, and she immediately said: “oh, i’ve read your blog”. i think that i both turned pale and blushed at the same time, resulting in a zero-sum change to my complexion, and i think i stammered something like: “oh… that’s… terrible”. So we now have a new (higher) standard of decency here at ManlioRules, “don’t write anything that you don’t want alex’s mom to read”. this is up from “don’t write anything that would make random people (like potential employers) think you’re an asshole”, and waaaay up from: “don’t write anything that wouldn’t say out loud while drunk”.

I insisted on taking manlio-self-shots with both the bride and groom:

and toasts were made of course. here’s the 2nd half of Oliver’s:

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we went out to floyd late night, where i got a little too drunk, and scott horded the bocce balls:

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the next morning i woke up with lyandra at 6:30, then went back to bed as she went to do her law school review. I finally got up around noon, and then went and met her and krista for bellini’s at 2. around 4:30 i realized that i needed to get my suit from the dry cleaners and make it to queens in an hour, so i once again rushed around, and finally got there. Scott (who was my date) texted me at 5:35 (wedding time was 5:30), and was like: “i just got off the subway”, and i told him to run. which he did, and blew into the wedding just before the ceremony started. from what i understand, he ran as fast as he could in nice shoes for like 6-7 long blocks. rockstar.

this is right after they got married. everything was going very well

Dinner was delicious. and then the dancing/drinking started…

then we all took double tequila shots…

and then this stuff happened:

i should also mention that dennis brought 1000 temporary tattoos that were a heart with “alex and karen 2006″ on them. mine has yet to totally wash off, but they were awesome

and then we went to the magician for a few drinks, neil and briehan came out,

and then we went to karaoke late night… karen and I rocked some Journey (”any way you want it” AND “don’t stop believin”. i think i won karaoke when i nailed the bridge to “any way you want it’. and it was the first song. everyone else played for second prize after that), and then, cocky as ever, we failed at some Kelly Clarkson (since u been gone), which is really high and totally out of my range (as if Journey isn’t)

sunday i woke up, blew off football, and lazed around the LES with matt and neil, and then took a $60 cab ride to Newark (stupid).

so the wedding was awesome. i’ll leave you with the comic stylings of dennis crowley:

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