Too much to think about...

Planning weddings is a lot of work.

I selected groomsmen, which was a lot harder than I thought it would be since I don't really have a best friend. I initially narrowed it down to about ten people, which I had to ultimately select three from. These ten were:
1. Andrew, my roommate and friend since 2005
2. Anthony, my roommate and Sarah's brother
3. Brandon, my friend all through elementary and high school
4. Mike, my friend from camp and into college
5. Matt, my future housemate and friend since high school as well as Sarah's friend since grade school
6. Stan, my friend in Eugene and the husband to Sarah's matron of honor
7. Tim, my cousin September's husband
8. Den, my cousin who lives in Seattle
9. Saxon, my friend in Eugene since 2006 and former band member
10. Rigo, my friend from Corvallis who now lives in Boise

In the end, I chose with three general things in mind, including...
1. Sarah's connection to people. In choosing my best man - which I grappled with a lot longer than you might think - I kept in mind that the wedding was the combination of our lives, and my choice should mean a lot to both of us.
2. My mom/family. I only had one option from the family who is actually related to me, with a second option related by marriage. It was important for me to get my family involved in some way.
3. Availability/Willingness. Unfortunately, a couple of the names on my list were unlikely from the start since there ability and/or willingness to participate is questionable.

The result:
Best Man: Matt Petrie
Groomsman: Stan Patton, Anthony Barberis, Dennis Gray (in no order)

I chose Matt to be my best man because of top ratings in both his connection to Sarah and I and his availability and willingness to help with whatever needs to be done. He has been a close friend of Sarah's (actually, his whole family has been a friend of Sarah's family) since they were in grade school, and we have been friends since we first met in 2003. Additionally, he will be living with us for the 6 months prior to the wedding when all three of us are out of college, so I can't imagine I'll be closer to anyone at the time of the wedding, save for Sarah.

A quick mind will notice that I selected three additional groomsman instead of the planned two. I selected Anthony before I even proposed to Sarah. When I told him I was planning on proposing, I asked him to be a part of the wedding. We've never really been extremely close, but he's Sarah's brother and our roommate, so he's obviously one of the closest males to Sarah and I as a couple.

It got kind of hard from there. Stan is one of the greatest people I know. I would have likely considered him seriously for best man if he had not been recently selected to be the best man in Anthony's wedding. He was Sarah's first suggestion for a groomsman, though, so he was easily in.

At that point I had served all of my needs except for the familial connection, which my mother was quick to point out. I talked to Sarah about adding in a fourth male to some portion of the wedding, and she let me add a fourth groomsman, which meant that Den was able to join. He is the youngest cousin of my mother's generation...younger than a couple of the cousins in my generation...so he is right in between my age and my mom's age and knows how to have fun with each of us. Sarah likes him too, although she doesn't know him all that well.

Hopefully that explains everything pretty well and when all is said and done nobody's upset by my choices. In the end, it's only a wedding. I enjoy and would stand beside all ten of the previously mentioned people.

In other news, winter term starts tomorrow morning. 16 credits.

-2nd Year Spanish 8 am
-Beowulf & Medieval Literature
-Literature of James Joyce
-Nature in 18th Century Literature

That's enough writing for one night...

In Sandy for "Christmas"

I came back out to Sandy this morning. I was just here last week, but our family Christmas events were postponed due to the weather, pushing them back to New Year's Eve. The drive from Eugene to Portland today only took 2 hours, which seemed like nothing compared to the 6 hour mess of snow, traffic, and ODOT that Sarah and I experienced on the 23rd. Nearly all of the snow has melted in Sandy now, so driving is no longer as difficult even on top of the hill and into the residential streets.

I spent most of the afternoon talking to my grandma while I was waiting for my parents to get home from work, and I remembered that that was how I spent ten years of afternoons when I was growing up. Funny how those things slip my mind and then wander back in.

We all watched the Holiday Bowl at 5:00, in which Oregon played Oklahoma State University, a higher ranked a heavily favored opponent. They quickly went down 10-0, then 17-7 by the end of the first quarter, but then the defense stepped it up and only allowed 14 points over the next three quarters to a team that averages 42 points each game. The offense was just as good, coming up with 34 points in the second half. It was an exciting game to watch, and especially good for Oregon fans (which I imagine made up most of the San Diego crowd).

My parents went to bed shortly thereafter, so I watched the second half of the basketball game between Portland and Boston. A couple of weeks ago, Portland played surprisingly close to the Celtics while on the tail end of a long road trip. They fell apart in fourth quarter, though, and lost to the heavily favored Celtics. I expected that to happen again tonight, even though they were at home this time, because of the absence of Brandon Roy. The Blazers were ahead by 3 when I turned the game on and that was pretty much how it stayed for about half an hour the final horn sounded and they had somehow defeated the champs without their all-star shooting guard.

Not a lot else going on. Hoping to make this a frequently updated site...