Shannon Whitworth and Kathleen Farrell were married on Saturday, October 30th. Ian and Shannon became friends in the third grade. We left for Milwaukee late Friday morning to avoid the Chicago rush, although we hit plenty of "non-rush" traffic.

Luckily we ran into Ian's and Shannon's boyhood friend Pete. Pete's mom had the scoop on all of the extra-curricular activities which were news to us. That night, we tried to find one of the events, but couldn't. There was to be a post-rehearsal dinner cocktail hour at the wedding party's hotel. We showed up, underdressed and under-coiffed, looking very obviously out of place, but saw no one we knew. We searched the bar on several different occasions over a half-hour period, but came up empty-handed each time. So just the three of us went to a pub and hung out for awhile.

Pete's a pretty interesting guy. He and Ian had a lot of catching up to do. Pete joined the Navy after already having been in graduate school, and is moving along in the ranks. He has a wife and a new baby, and had plenty to say about what's going on in the armed services right now. Apparently his wife's introduction to the Navy was not as hospitable as it could have been.

Ian and I slept in very very late. We still had plenty of time before the wedding, so we got some breakfast at the great diner that Shannon has always taken us to when we've visited. That was when I finally identified the aroma I'd been smelling in the air periodically - yeast. Milwaukee brews an awful lot of beer.

The wedding was at 2 on Saturday. I got to find out whether I could fit into the pants I wanted to wear, or whether I'd be wearing stretch pants. The verdict was - no stretch pants for me. Ian got to learn how to tie a tie. Thanks to the internet site "Tie-a-tie.net", he'd printed out illustrated instructions for tying a windsor knot. He still asked for a little advice from me on form, but I wasn't too much help. We rarely have occasion to dress formally. Fortunately, he'd gotten his wedding suit tailored in time for the wedding - he'd lost about 30 pounds since he got measured for that suit.

We carpooled with Pete and his parents to St. Hedwig Catholic Church. We saw Shannon for the first time on the trip, and we weren't sure how much of him we'd be getting. So I soaked it up! As it turned out, we got to talk to him a few more times over the weekend.

The ceremony was quite long by the standards of other weddings I've been to, but not all of them have been Catholic. The parts which directly involved with bride and groom had my undivided attention. However, there was much more to the wedding than just the vows and the "I do's".

Fortunately there was plenty of scenery to look at inside the church - the architecture, the stained glass, the wedding party, the other guests - for those not immersed in Catholic ritual. I got to ponder whether or not the priest would wash the ceremonial vessel for Christ's blood between ceremonies, or whether a swipe with a rag was all the treatment it would get.

After the ceremony, we got confused about where to go next, and missed the after-wedding, but before-reception party. Instead we spent several hours at the art museum, which is where the reception was held. We spent part of this time sitting around, part of it viewing the artwork, and Pete and Ian spent part of it trying to catch the score of the Michigan-Michigan State game.

At 5:30 the rest of the people in the wedding showed up. Hours'dourves and drinks were served until we were seated at 7. The museum was a very classy place to have a reception. The building is very new, and is a gorgeous example of one-of-a-kind creative-as-hell architecture.

The fatal flaw of the museum as a reception venue is that the acoustics do not favor amplified speeches. The poor members of the wedding party valiantly tried to toast the bride and groom, but all we heard were echoes of echoes. The band which played after dinner also did not fare well acoustically.

One of the very best parts of the weekend, at least for me, was seeing Shannon and his family, and Kathleen. We hadn't seen Lydia, Shannon's mom, since last Thanksgiving. His aunts Helen and Linda were there too. We also met his father, brother, sister, and another aunt and an uncle.

The two most moving moments of the wedding for me, just knowing the history of Shannon and his mom, and of how far they've come together - alone - were when Shannon embraced Lydia at the end of the church aisle, and when they danced at the reception.

Shannon is Lydia's only son, and although they've had their tousles, and are both extremely strong-minded, Shannon is the most devoted son I have ever met. Lydia is also a delightful person, and I am very fond of her. I don't know aunt Helen as well, but I've spent time with Linda on several occasions, and am also quite fond of her.

The last event of the weekend was a visit to Kathleen and Shannon's new condo. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it certainly exceeded anything I might have expected in terms of elegance and special features. Real estate is very dear in the city, and it seemed like they had chosen well. They are planning to raise children, and there is a large grassy park right across the street.

After hearing Shannon and Kathleen tell the story of the long chain of events (including a couple of deaths) leading up to their wedding, from the time they began planning it, I figured that they had been amply tested for fitness to be married. I thought we'd had it bad - both having pneumonia only two months before our wedding (which hadn't been planned yet). But we have nothing on those two!

Somehow, even though we left Milwaukee in the late morning, we managed to get back into Ann Arbor early enough to do some important chores, like pick up the dog and get some groceries. We even got back in time for Halloween. We were thinking of sticking around for a party next door, but the sight of a few too many tiny goblins all at once gave me the heebie jeebies and I lobbied for slipping out of the neighborhood under cover of darkness to sup at our favorite bar. I realized that I would simply have to accept the title of the neighborhood grinch!