xtcian

7/26/03 New Orleans, LA (14

7/26/03 New Orleans, LA (14 days until wedding)

to all our friends who couldn't be with us: we wish you were here!

7/25/03 New Orleans, LA (15

7/25/03 New Orleans, LA (15 days until wedding)

I have had twelve drinks tonight, so let's stick to the basics of my bachelor party, shall we? We're in my favorite town in the world, we all had Po-Boys at the Verti Marte, played pool at Coop's Place, gambled at the Harrah's, and went dancing at the gay, gay Oz. Let me sum up in picture what I cannot with language.

thump! thump! thump! thump!

7/24/03 Jasper, GA (16 days

7/24/03 Jasper, GA (16 days until wedding)

We drove through the gorgeous stretch of the Bleu Ridge Montagnes today, but I was in the back seat drooling in the weird REM-free half-sleep of the frequently jolted. Much to Tessa's chagrin, I have a strong affinity for truck stops of the "Flying J" variety, so we stopped a few times at places where they probably thought we were faggots.

The bachelor party road trip kicked into high dander when we pulled into the Jasper Family Steakhouse and tore into some chicken-fried steak, creamed corn, and the biggest T-bone steaks I've ever seen, all courtesy of Salem. Back at his place, we played air hockey and then spent two hours dunking on his 8-foot basketball goal. ROAD TRIP!!!

at Arby's, the food is so goddamn hot that even their Oven Mitt Mascot is sweating!

Beware these Corn Nuts - that's some Corn Gone Wrong!

I want some feng shui... but I'm a dummy! What do I do?!?

7/23/03 Harrisonburg, VA (17 days

7/23/03 Harrisonburg, VA (17 days until wedding)

Jesus. I started the day at Ralph Lauren trying on an excellent tux for my wedding day, but any attempts to get out of town for my bachelor party were flummoxed by an assassination at City Hall that brought traffic in Manhattan to a standstill and closed the bridges.

Sean, Scott and I managed to limp out of New Jersey only to be met by the sput-sput-sputtering of Bessie the Land Rover as she ran out of gas and stopped in a mosquito-infested feeder road outside White Marsh, Maryland. After an hour or so of waiting for AAA, I busted out the basketball and started working on my dribble, while Scott and Sean had a farting contest. ROAD TRIP!!!

The waylay cost us our trip to Chapel Hill, so we redirected the caravan west and now we sit in the Jameson Inn in Harrisonburg, a small hamlet in the mountains of Virginia. The sign said "FREE ENTERNET ACCESS" and they weren't lyin'! The world is getting better every day!

7/22/03 Brooklyn, NY (18 days

7/22/03 Brooklyn, NY (18 days until wedding)

Tessa and I took separate cars from the farm down to Brooklyn today, except that I'm a poop-stepping moron and left my medications upstate. I realized this about halfway down the Hudson, so I had to return back, spending an hour in the car for absolutely no reason. There was a day when this would have been no problem, but since I have kidney stones (300mg allopurinol) and I'm nuttier than a brick shithouse (30mg Celexa), I'm forced to marry myself to my toiletry bag. I often have daydreams where I'm in the Peace Corps, and I'm only allowed to carry a certain amount of personal affects, and I have to decide which ailment I'm going to endure.

This fuckup meant that I couldn't meet Rick Gradone in the city to look at suits for the wedding, meaning that I still don't have one. Tessa had her dress by May of 2002.

Tomorrow afternoon, Sean, Scott and I are beginning our southern trek to my bachelor party in New Orleans, and I couldn't be more psyched. My favorite place in the world combined with my favorite people in the world. Well, except for my absolute favorite person in the world, who will be up here in the city for her own bachelorette shindig. I doubt they'll have crawfish, beignets and Cajun prostitutes where she's going, so HA HA HA!

7/21/03 Columbia County, NY (19

7/21/03 Columbia County, NY (19 days until wedding)

I don't know if any of you were standing on a hill in Chatham, NY tonight, but this storm kinda sucked.

7/20/03 Columbia County, NY (20

7/20/03 Columbia County, NY (20 days until wedding)

I dunno how many of you have had the pleasure of struggling with the new Epson Stylus Photo 2200 printer, but it sure is ornery, and it doesn't help that Mac OS X has taken a giant step backward in terms of printing simplicity. The "chooser" in the old Mac platform used to be the kind of thing I could (and did) explain to my grandmother, but the OS X Print Center is a giant, non-intuitive pain the ass.

Once you get the Epson 2200 running, however, the picture quality is gaw-jus. The inks are also guaranteed to last the better part of a century, which is cool, because the old digital photos I used to put on the fridge started looking very 1974 Kodachrome after about two months. Print longevity is the only reason we sank so much $$$ into the printer - I mean, if you're going to bother, you might as well have prints that last longer than a year or two.

This huge photo project has led me down some pretty hilarious alleys in my archive, including a roll of negatives that had never been turned into prints. This 1991 photo will mean something to about 4 or 5 people in this world, but I think it might bring some joy to those particular souls:

click for bigger