Without any further ado...part 3!

Friday, 06-16-00 10:00am: Luckily i woke up after the bachelor party without a hangover *phew*! Our room just looked like ass though. Cigar butts and ash all over the place, cups and beer cans strewn about, pizza crusts and boxes stacked in one corner...made me wonder how people at college could throw parties every weekend. hahha...we got it all cleaned up, and then drove back thru traffic to Queens.

I think about 60% of my trip last week was spent sitting in traffic. New York City has traffic 24 hrs a day. I guess that's just what happens when you try to cram a couple million people onto one island. *shrug*

1:30pm-4:30pm: Get back to Queens and *try* to print out the CD labels for the wedding CD's...unfortunately I forgot my laptop in Jersey, so I had to use my friend's computer (none of my fonts were there, none of my rough drafts) so i had to start from scratch. Banged out a quick simple design, and was psyched to get printing and get this done. Luckily for me, my friend's printer was hungry that day and ate up about every other label that i put into the printer. I finished printing about 20 labels in 2 hours and wasted about 15 sheets. Nice. =/ Was busy stressing this out when i realized that we had to get to our hotel and shower before the wedding rehearsal.

4:45pm: The couple of million people that i mentioned earlier must have been trying to get to the hotel as well, so we were stuck in traffic again. Get a call on the cell from the groom telling us to skip the hotel and head straight to the church. Please keep in mind that right now I was sweaty as hell..smelled pretty bad, and just had shorts and a raggedy hat on. Not to say that my friends weren't dressed well...my friend Randy was wearing a cut-off t-shirt, shorts, and slippers. Perfect wedding rehearsal attire, don't you think?

5:50pm: Arrive at the church in Jersey City. Had 10 minutes to change into my suit, no shower, sticky and sweaty as hell. This was quite possibly the grossest i've felt in a long, long time. Sprayed deodorant and cologne all over myself and my buddies and ran into the church. After all that rushing, found out that we were the first ones there. So I took about 5-10 minutes to play w/my goddaughter outside in the 90 degree humidity (i think to myself: what's a little more sweat soaking thru my shirt gonna matter?!)

6:15pm: Still waiting for the groom and bride to show up. Finally get things rolling around 6:30pm - rehearsal is cool, we are shown where to walk, blah blah, we're out of there and head to the rehearsal dinner. The dinner is cool. Nice filipino restaurant in Jersey city...good food, good friends, what more do you need? =)

Approx 9:00pm: Bride and Groom give thank you presents to the sponsors and the bridesmaids. It was pretty emotional. Bride tells everyone about how she knows each one, tells a little story, tears everywhere. Right now i'm dreading having to go up there and receive my gift. I ain't ready to cry right now. ahahaa!

Groom calls the groomsmen up, and does the same deal - introduces us all and tells a story about each of us and how he knows us. The first 4 guys - im cool. Once he gets to our family, my closest friends...i can feel the tears start welling up in my eyes. *deep breath* WHOOO this is tough. He finishes w/the first groomsman, Riel, and the last 3 of us are wondering who is he gonna do next.

Of course its me...he starts out saying "this guy i've known the longest...longer even than my own brother..." (i think to myself: that's it...im done *eyes all watery*) I look at the floor cuz I can't look at him in the face - seeing him talk about me in this way is just too tough. I try to break the tension by punching my friend Randy who's right next to me, but this is really hard.

Next the groom talks about his brother, and this was just nuts. The groom has to stop his speech about every 10 words because he is too choked up to speak. I keep looking at the floor. Seeing my boys' faces right now would open up the the floodgates and i didnt wanna be all bawlin up there like a lil girl (ahahahahah). But naw, on the real it was really a nice speech.

The groom then goes on to talk about his best friend, and same thing - lookin at the floor again. Who would have known that this would be so emotional?! I mean..i know this is my first wedding and all..but c'mon. I dunno. I guess seeing one of my very best friends getting married was just overwhelming for me. I know some of you are thinkin that im "soft" or a "b*tch" right now...but naw it aint even like that. I grew up w/these guys from when i was practically a fetus. They are my brothers and it just really hits your heart when an event like this happens. They weren't even tears of sadness that we were losing him as a "bachelor" or whatever...to tell you the truth i don't even know what the tears were of. Happiness? Maybe. All i know is that it was a beautiful moment...i'll never forget what he said that night...it's one of those memories that you remember for your whole life. Something that in 30 years when i think about it, it will always bring a smile to my face.

On deck for tomorrow...THE BIG DAY! What's this i hear about 'Big Pun' driving our limo? Be sure to come back and find out!