There's no comic, and with the way that the current MT page works, there has to be a new comic for a new rant--and thus, I'm putting my scheduled Friday rant here. Well, technically, it was my scheduled Wednesday rant, but since Monday went long, and... well, whatever.

What matters is, I was invited to Greg Dean's wedding, and it made me think about how I'm not young anymore. I mean, I'm not yet out of my twenties and such, so I'm not OLD, but there are things that happen that hit home and tell me that college is over. This was the first time I'd ever gone to the wedding of a peer of mine (Greg and I are just about the same age, if you were curious), and like the death of a friend to cancer (that first happened in 2000, sadly), it's one of those things that makes you realize that you're no longer allowed to be young, stupid and invincible.

And then came the shopping for the wedding gift. There I am, at Target, and it really hits me. I'm in the kitchenware section. And it's not because I'm lost. I know exactly what I want to buy, and it's not in the snacks aisle or the electronics section.

Two years ago? Unthinkable. Last week, reality. It's disconcerting.

Just to keep myself from falling into a deep depression, I ended up giving the two of them a Final Fantasy XI shirt as their "real" wedding gift, and explaining the Corningware set I got them as an add-on to the T-shirt.

The day of the wedding itself was pretty strange, too. I got up at 6 AM or so, and started getting ready--largely because I didn't know where all of my formal wear had been put. Last time I put on any of my formal wear was for last year's series of funerals, so it's kind of understandable that I didn't want to see it anymore. I realized that there was still cemetery dirt on my good shoes, so I cleaned that off before going to excavate my tie.

Did you know that it takes me a half-hour to put on a tie? I know how to do it, but it always looks ugly on the first ten tries or so, so I keep having to re-do the knot to try and get it looking good. The process is pretty sad, really, but kind of understandable that I only put on ties for funerals, weddings and job interviews.

Anyway, so that was going on, and I was in a fairly somber mood as I was thinking about friends getting married and the last time I'd worn the suit. Then I got an IM from fellow prevert Seiya, saying that there was a Hamidon raid going on in City of Heroes. And for the next hour and a half, I sat, in my best suit and favorite tie, in my computer chair playing City of Heroes.

That, as you may imagine, lifted my spirits immensely.

Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond my control, my date and I were late to the wedding itself, which I still feel bad about--I was averaging 90 miles an hour on the way up to Sacramento, and I almost made it on time. But I was thwarted by one of the most frustrating stretches of road I've ever encountered. Did you know that there are TWO roads named 104 in the Sutter Creek area, and only one of them actually leads to Sutter Creek? I didn't. So I was late.

But we made it to the reception, at least, and got to see Greg looking sharp and Liz looking gorgeous on her dress. And Greg tried to hit me in the face with a garter.

I'll talk about the reception more later--I have to head off, and this "rant" is late as is, according to my Lenten promise.