Sunday, April 13, 2008

All-time, top five hangover foods

1.) McDonald's french fries
2.) Nachos
3.) Annie's mac & cheese
4.) Pizza
5.) Advil LiquiGels

So the last one's not a food, per se, but you ingest it and it makes you feel better on the Day After.

I had three of the five today. My friend Dave got married on Friday in the biggest wedding I've ever attended -- 250 people, held in a large church with a runway for an aisle, with a reception at a hanger of a banquet hall. Dave's the closest thing to a brother to me, and he's the kind of guy who gets along with everyone. Nearly everyone he meets becomes a close friend. It's no wonder there were so many people at the wedding, with five tables -- so 40 people worth -- near mine filled with friends and family members of those friends stretching all the way back to grade school.

Here's all you need to know about Dave and his friendships: two guys I went to college with were invited simply because we've all been in the same fantasy baseball league for nine years now. He invited the parents and siblings of most of the groomsmen, including a few he's only known for the last six or eight years or so.

The wedding was a three-day celebration, beginning Thursday when we began convening in South Jersey and held the rehearsal and dinner. The church ceremony was Friday afternoon -- confusing many of us up through tonight about what day it actually is -- with the reception lasting until 11 and the afterparty until 2 a.m. Saturday, several dozen of us -- Dave might've even said it was up to 100 -- were back together at his parents' house for a Vietnamese gathering. This last ceremony also provided us with a chance to decorate his car, which we couldn't do on Friday night with the rain. So while he and his wife ate from the enormous Vietnamese buffet, a dozen of us gooped up our hands with finger paint and put our own artistic visions onto his recently washed-and-waxed BMW M5. But with Dave, it's ALWAYS a recently washed-and-waxed car.

The friends checklist is filling up, with just a few single souls remaining. These celebrations are becoming more rare and less frequent. It's an easier pace to maintain, though it makes for more carefree celebrating, as indicated by our necessity to stop beneath the golden arches on our way from the South Jersey hotel to Dave's parents' this morning. Those fries did wonders for Casey and me, as I'm sure they will again someday after another long, enjoyable night.

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