Weddings and The Constitution...

This weekend a couple of old friends of mine from the Maine days got hitched. The SO and I drove up to the big city of Philadelphia to head to this one. Big congratulations go out to Les and Kathleen, now betrothed. Let me tell you guys something. This wedding was definitely one of those things you go to and say, "Damn, sure am glad I went to that." It was, for me at least, in a word, spectacular. The setting, the reception, the food, the damn Viennese dessert room (yes, I said room), the music, everything, unreal. I have to send out a big thanks to Les and Kathleen for inviting to the nuptials, glad I could come. Sure, it was a long ass drive, but in the end worth it. I got to see a couple of good friends of mine get married, and got to eat some good food, and drink some good booze. Hey, what are weddings for? I hope that they're having a good time in Hawaii (although I'm not really sure if they've left yet or not), and all Les could talk about the night of the reception was how he was planning on learning how to surf while he was there. I suggested he first watch the Brady Bunch episode where they go to Hawaii, and Greg finds the cursed tiki idol necklace thing, and then almost dies while trying to play the big man for the local ladies. Of course if there had been any local perspective on that episode, it would have revealed what really happened to Greg. I'm certain someone pulled the leash of his board when he was trying to take off to show him that only locals get to surf that certain break he was on. Damn mainlander coming over trying to steal their waves and their women. What the hell was he thinking? Anyway, I related this all to Les, who then had second thoughts about surfing (because you've got to respect the Brady lore). I also made mention that there are sharks around there, at which point Kathleen chimed in and said that maybe surfing, or learning to surf wasn't such a good idea. Ah yes, my fear of the sea paranoia is now getting the best of my friends. Look, a kid from Lincoln Maine should not be riding waves in Hawaii. That's it, end of story, I don't want to hear anything else about it. Although, I'm sure that if he does, he'll have a good time doing it.

Back in the summer of 1997 while still living in good old Bangor Maine, Les moved in with myself and my roommate at the time Troy Dayon (anyone know what happened to that kid because I sure don't). Anyway, he moved in and we promptly renamed him Laszlo. Why you might ask? Well, go back, review the movie Real Genius (with a very young Val Kilmer) and you'll see that the smartest guy in the movie was named Laszlo, but that he lived in the steam tunnels/basement underneath the dorms. Les moved into our basement, and hence the Laszlo moniker. Hey, it seemed like the right thing to call him. We also had an episode of an exploding car in our driveway, but that was just some crossed wires somewhere along the line. Les, unfortunately, was also the reason why I got kicked out of the apartment that I was living in. Seems as though the landlord didn't like him living in the basement, and since my landlord seemed to take a shine to coming into my apartment when nobody was there, and snooping around, he found out. Evicted us. Which was OK, since Les was moving over to Orono, and Troy was getting transferred to New York, and well, the landlord was kind of a dick anyway. I found a better place for less money, and everyone was happy, except the landlord, since the eviction notice was for like July or something like that, and I kept living there until September, but I wrote him a letter, asked him if it was OK, and he never said no, and he kept cashing the rent checks, so it couldn't have been too bad right? Aside from that I told him that I had retained legal counsel to possibly sue for infringement on my right to privacy since he entered the apartment when I wasn't there, and didn't notify me in writing 24 hours ahead of time (which is the law in Maine), and well, yeah, I almost sued him for that, but me not being the litigious sort decided to not do something like that. I just packed up my crap, cleaned the hell out of the apartment, and moved to Orono, which was the better choice anyway. Living in Bangor kind of sucks. Don't do it, and don't let Stephen King fool you when he says it's great living there. Sure, for him, he's one of the most famous authors on the face of the planet. If you're a young 20 something trying to have a good time, Bangor, not the place for it. Brewer, definitely not the place for it. After moving from Bangor back to the stomping grounds of Orono, that's when I met Kathleen for the first time, and that's when I got to be good friends with the both of them. So yeah, it all worked out for the best, and I didn't have to live under the watchful eye of the evil landlord. I had a "talk" with him one day, and I honestly thought he was going to knock me out, or well, try to knock me out. He had that crazed look in his eyes. That's when I changed the locks on him. Yeah, he didn't like that little move either.

Seeing as the SO and I were in Philadelphia, and staying a short walk away from where we declared our independence from England, and then where the founding fathers (some of them at least) wrote the Constitution, we figured it would be a good idea to do some sight seeing, tourist attraction kind of stuff. First on the list, Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. Security around there these days is a little tight, but not too bad. They won't be taking away your scissors or your nail files, but you've got to get a ticket (free), and then go through the metal detectors, and then you can walk through this building that has a lot of displays about the Liberty Bell, and houses the actual Liberty Bell. Good stuff no doubt. There is a lot of reading involved, so if you don't like to read, just by-pass the reading stuff, and go and see the bell at the end of the building. After you get to see the Liberty Bell, you pass back outside where you are let across the street to go and see Independence Hall and the other buildings around it. There is the first House of Representatives, and upstairs from that, the first Senate Chamber, and hence I suppose where they get the whole upper and lower house thing. Turns out the digs for the Senators were much nicer than the room for the Representatives. I guess having connections back in the day (Senators were chosen not elected) had its perks. We got a short little tour and run down of that building and some of the history of what happened there. Then we rolled over to the Independence Hall tour, which our tour was being run by this crazy haired woman named Patia (don't even remotely know if I spelled that correctly). Let's just say Patia was quirky, well spoken, knew her shit, and was pretty funny, and you could tell she loved her job. She was definitely the history geek sitting in the front row of whatever high school you went to. She gave a great tour though. We got to see the room where the Declaration was signed and written, and where the Constitution was hashed out. Pretty powerful stuff to be in the same room where that all took place. A lot of the furniture she told us, was original in there, including the head chair of the guy who was running the show during the writing of the Constitution, yeah, that's right, George Washington. You know, the father of our country, that guy. His chair, I was in the same room as it. On the same grounds as Independence Hall was the Philosophical Society building which held some weird and decent exhibits, and also the building that housed the first Supreme Court of the US. Imagine, all of that stuff crammed into 500 feet of road space along Chestnut Street in Philadelphia. A lot of people have gone to DC, but I think less people go to Philadelphia where it call came down. Shame really. Also, a couple of blocks away from Independence Hall is a newer museum dedicated entirely to just the Constitution, and the history behind it. Now that place you could spend a lot of time in there reading everything that they have in there. Also, there is a room in there where they have bronze full sized statues of the signers as they were depicted in the painting of them signing the Constitution. Now I don't know about you, but full sized bronze statues of our founding fathers, while kind of cool, was also kind of creepy. And here's the best part, one of the guys there from NC had a mullet.I swear to God. I'm pretty sure if you could get that coat off of him, he'd have a #3 Dale shirt underneath there even back in the 1700's. Yep, North Carolina, represent. Spaight, yep, he was kicking the business up front, and party in the back look even back then. If you are ever in Philly though, check out at least those few things. They're worth the time really. We took about 5 hours to walk around there, check things out, and we didn't even touch the rest of the historical stuff in Philadelphia, so for a couple of dorks like the SO and myself, this was a good day indeed. Oh, and forgot to mention that during the drive up, and part of the way home, we got to listen to some books on tape. Another good thing. Makes the driving go by nice and fast for the most part. I suggest it. I think even at Cracker Barrels, you can rent books on tape, and then turn them in at any other Cracker Barrel and get more. And in the South, as most of you are aware, there is a Cracker Barrel every 10 feet down here. You can't hardly swing a dead cat without hitting one. Going back to the Founding Fathers. No wonder the British weren't very scared of us. These guys are not what I would call imposing. I towered over most of them, and remember, I'm wicked short. The SO definitely towered over them, which is pretty easy since she is taller than I. With the exception of good old George Washington. He's one tall mo-fo. He stood around 6'4" tall (I wonder how many hands that is??), and you could see that he dominated the room just with his height and his presence. That's one other thing our crazy tour guide told us before. She mentioned that although he was smart, a decent politician, and a half decent General, Washington had one thing that was really working for him. His height. She said that when he strode into a room, people paid attention. Think about it now. You see some guy walking around who is about George Washington's height, and all eyes turn to that person. Right? Don't even deny it. My brother lived with this guy Nate who was what? 6'5" or maybe 6'6"? And when we went places out in town with him, and he walked in, everyone looked. I would imagine with a bunch of short guys running around founding the country, it was no different for George Washington.

Go to Philadelphia. Walk around. See the things they have there, and then come back and tell me that you're not impressed or enthralled with standing around in our history. I was.