A Friday the 13th Wedding

In just a few short hours I will board a plane at JFK to fly to San Juan, Puerto Rico where I will then board a smaller plane and fly to the Caribbean island of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. This is not just another vacation. This is the last vacation I will take as a single man. When I arrive back in the United States I will be married to a wonderful woman named Bonnie who I met via a Craigslist personals ad in August 2004.

Our wedding is scheduled for sunset at the historic Sugar Mill building on the estate of the Buccaneer Resort, just a few miles from the capital city of St. Croix, Cristiansted. Overlooking ocean and setting sun, we will cite our vows and pledge ourselves to each other for the rest of our lives. In attendance will be my twin brother Damien and his fiancée Katie, my mother (who is very excited about the tropical setting of the wedding; I think she is reminded of the formative years our family spent in American Samoa in the South Pacific), my older brother Craig and his wife, Bonnie's best friend who she met in ballet school nearly 20 years ago, and Bonnie's mother. A small group, a small wedding, and exactly what we wanted.

On Friday January 13, 2005 I will become a better man because I will have taken that difficult step of giving myself completely to another human being. Many people are shocked that we chose to have our wedding on such an ominous and superstitious date. However they nod understandably when I mention that Friday the 13th has always been a lucky day for me and my family. My twin brother and I were born on a Friday the 13th in April, and every 5-7 years or so we get to celebrate our birthdays on a Friday, making it even more special. My mother reminds me that she and my dad signed the leases on two different houses on two different Friday the 13th's in the 1970s and 1980s. Having our wedding on a Friday the 13th is an obvious choice and one we will treasure for the rest of my lives. When I first started thinking about wedding dates my initial thought was to have it on June 6, 2006 or 06/06/06, but when I looked at the 2006 calendar I saw that January 13 was a Friday and realized it was a much better choice. Besides, having an anniversary the same week as MLK Day means I will be easier to vacation in warm places escaping the cold claws of winter.

On a professional note, I have big plans for 2006. I've neglected this blog far too much and need to get back into the habit of posting regularly about what I'm working on, sharing my opinions of what's going on in the world and continuing this "blog" thing that has taken the world by storm. Who knew that when I started blogging nearly eight years ago that it would be one of the pioneers of a new media format. I'm working on a couple of projects that I hope to announce soon and probably beta-launch or pre-announce around the time of SXSW in March -- where I will be attending for the first time with my new wife (she has never been to Texas, so we'll need to introduce her to Stubb's and the other wonders of the great city of Austin).

To the future, whatever it may bring.