You don't have to get married to go on a 2-week vacation, but it's a convenient excuse that no one can make you feel bad about

So yeah, I totally got married.

This is actually a picture from the night of the rehearsal dinner but I sort of love this picture and you get the idea. The tent was in my Dad's backyard.

The rehearsal dinner was notable for the fact that everyone got pretty drunk, especially The Sister's boyfriend and Phil the Irish DJ, who between the two of them polished off about a half a gallon of Jameson. I mean, are you kidding me?

The wedding itself was perfectly nice and Super Hot Irish Girlfriend looked awesome and all that stuff. There was a slight hitch in the proceedings when our officiant, who claimed to have done "thousands" of weddings, started reading someone else's vows in the middle. Really? That's funny, I don't remember writing "Let us pray." Anyway, I guess it's all still legal and stuff.

Now we're in New York and having an awesome time and everything except that SHIG is maybe a little tired from lack of sleep and let me assure you that dragging a tired SHIG through the Metropolitan Museum of Art at 9:30 a.m. on a Tuesday is maybe not the best way to start off a new marriage.

I have a couple of other observations about NYC:

(1) The whole New-Yorkers-are-rude canard is totally false. Everyone is perfectly nice. Maybe even nicer than SF. Is this just Manhattan or is everyone in NY nice?

(2) WHAT THE FUCK is up with the peds walking against red lights? I thought it was bad in SF, but here peeps have taken it to a whole new level by actually walking in front of cars. Carazy. But now I'm doing it too, just to fit in.

(3) Buddakan was really good. It's one of those sceney kind of places where you expect the food to be an afterthought, but every dish we had was awesome. I could have that Chinese sausage fried rice every day. And the lobster and shrimp chow fun? Oh fuck yes.

(4) If you live somewhere like SF, then NYC doesn't seem expensive at all. We had breakfast with my nephew and his wife at Balthazar yesterday and I was all "$14 for an omelette and potatoes? Seems right to me!" I could see this possible surprising someone from, say, Amarillo, Texas.

Off to Turks & Caicos tomorrow. I don't know what the Internet situation will be and I'll be too tired and drunk to type anyway, so I don't know the next time you'll hear from me. It's amazing I even posted this.

ONE FINAL NOTE: SHIG (who shall remain SHIG until further notice, despite our change in status) and I both wrote a little something for San Francisco Love Story and it's up there today, so go check that out for EVEN! MORE! BONUS! CONTENT! You should totally be reading SFLS anyway.

That's it. I've gotta go walk around some more. Last day in NYC. SHIG is out shopping. We agreed it would be better to split up today than to go shopping together, which would consist of me sighing and staring at her REALLY HARD while she holds clothes up.