Honeymoon in Vegas

To say I was smitten would be an understatement. It was more like head over heels and most likely because she was just so unlike any of the girls I knew before. She wasn’t exactly wild, but she was free spirited, always on the go and having fun. In a lot of ways, she was a living contradiction to what I imaged life should be like. I would have eventually done most of the things I did because of her, like buying my first car, but it wouldn’t have been as soon as it was, or as much fun.

The “aunt” she was visiting turned out to be just a long time family friend, and after she went back home, my sole priority was to find ways to see her again. This led to even more episodes; like the Saturday morning I had to be downtown before daylight to catch a bus to where she lived and had to almost physically fight off an old gay guy hanging around out in front of the bus station who wouldn’t take no for an answer when he asked if I wanted to go to his apartment for breakfast (actually it was hell no, but he wouldn’t take that either), or the day I hitched a ride with a friend and while we were driving across the desert a group of about 30 or so Hell’s Angels swarmed around the car like we weren’t even there as they passed us and went on up the road, or the time me and several of the guys were out drinking and we all went to her house drunk. Her Mom couldn’t stop laughing at us, and I couldn’t figure out why.

So I got the car and we were free to go anywhere --- the mountains, the desert, the ocean, LA. We put countless miles on that car. I became a fixture at her house and even today, I count her Mom and Dad as two of my best friends.

Did you ever notice that sometimes when you’re not paying close attention that life has a way of jerking you back into reality? Or put another way, when you’re young and think you know everything, life has a way of showing you that you didn’t know anything. Well, take my word, it does. It’s not something that we hid from our families or friends either --- what happens, happens --- so I’ll just say that soon enough, we were getting married.

Honeymoon in Vegas. Let’s see. First, I forgot to pack the shirt I was going to wear, which was the only button up shirt I had, so I borrowed a friend’s shirt. If you look closely at our wedding pictures you will see my collar tucked into my jacket since his shirt was one of those with the long pointed collars. Then we found out after the wedding, that even if you are dressed up as a bride and groom or not, if you’re not 21 you are not going to gamble. Then finally, her younger brother thought he could invade our room later that night to sneak a smoke so his parents wouldn’t find him. We let him stay for one, but when he started to light up another one we kicked his butt out.

You know, anything that starts off like that is going to be a hoot!