May December in October

First off, yes the niners lost but was that not an amazing quote by new head coach Mike Singletary. Yes it is definitely my G Chat Status. Shout out to Chris Alvarez and Stephanie Ybarra. We have been the three musketeers out here and they have joined me in my almost daily milk shake runs. Now the main event.

1. Sharp Dressed Dorsch men...check.

2. Older sister who despite the fact that she left the kids at home still brought the twins...check.

3. McCousins to properly enjoy the events taking place...check.

4. A brilliant comparison of my Uncle to my Great Aunt...check.

5. My best friends dad sitting next to my former boss...check.

6. Random Patriotic Medley played during dinner...check.

7. Perfect weather in lovely Whittier (Ye Friendly Towne)...check.

8. Almost unlimited joke making fodder...check plus!

Dad, Me, Chrissi, and modesty

With these elements and a few others my family and I celebrated the wedding of my cousin Kim to her new (ish) husband Ernie.

Luxury

When I got home exactly a month ago my dad told me that my mom's cousin Kim was getting married. Kim is my mom's first cousin making her my first cousin once removed. Although I don't know Kim super well she has always been very nice to me. Her dad and my Grandpa are brothers and they look a lot alike.

My dad wasn't so keen on going by himself so I agreed to go with him, Chrissi too and even Don wanted to come. The wedding and the reception would take place at the Friendly Hills Country Club, the site of such notable events as Don and Chrissi's Reception , Jordan and Marlo's Reception (I missed it because I was in Norway...HUGE MISTAKE) Lauren's 18th birthday party (Jenny asked me to Winter Formal...WOO HOOO) and many a fruit punch courtesy of the Peeler's tab (thanks Kreg, JJ remember the time with Kreg, FHCC and us convincing him that Clint was mad?)

The weather could not have been nicer, we were seated by my cousin and author extraordinaire Chris McKeon (head usher, he clearly felt right at home ). The ceremony was preformed by my Stake President and home teacher and it was a nice and rather brief ceremony. We all had our theories as to why that was the case.

Kim looked beautiful and had many sparkling pieces of jewelry and she was very happy. I think Ernie was happy , I mean well...uh....well...yeah. Let's just say that there would be definite similarities if my dad started dating girls from my ward. You go Ernie...more power to you.

The New(ish)ly Weds

After the ceremony I chatted with my old boss and current cousin as well as Jordan's mom and dad. Don's Aunt and Uncle were there too. My dad does a pretty good job of tooting my horn because it seemed like the whole family knew I was working in Washington, I told people how I was out here for the fall and would be returning to DC next month. I gave my take on the elections and the political environment, and totally convinced people that I was way more important than I really am.

Murder on the Dancefloor

The reception was great. Despite our best efforts we could not convince my dad to stay very long. He just doesn't like these types of things without mom being there. But I had a great time with the cousins, eating, laughing and people watching. My Uncle Danny showed pictures to all who would see and I pointed out that it had a certain Aunt Maudie quality to it. I don't think he has forgiven me for that.

I know that most grown men look ridiculous on the dance floor and I am no exception, but I do love to dance, and the McCousins and I were eager to drop it like it was hot. We got the party started and soon after the dance floor was packed. They played a few ABBA songs and I was loving it.

Dinner was tasty and we had a great time with our extended family. I know my mom would have loved it, and I wish Jenn could have been there too. I am aware of the pressure on me to have a wedding of my own if for no other reason than I have four flower girls and a ring bearer all set to go.

I want to ensure the newlyweds have a great time in there new lives but that really depends.

Happy Birthday Josh Rose

Ah Josh Rose, one of my oldest and best friends. I did not call him today on his birthday because I did one better an entire blog post to this new father and home owner. Some of my Pete Chat readers know josh very well, some of you have never met Josh. I'm going to introduce you to Josh Rose. Josh and I have been friends since pre school. We loved baseball and baseball cards. He introduced me to Star Wars, I introduced him to Pro Wrestling. He is a huge comic book fan and we have had many discussions about X-Men and the Marvel Universe. We did Tiger Cubs together and we went sailing on the Wind Fall.

Josh and I went to summer school together and made an awesome Space Station. When someone accused us that it wasn't reasonable, we immediately dismissed that kid. Two years later we made an awesome X-Men Video game.

Josh is famous for having no tolerance for pain. He trusted me to give the toast at his wedding reception two years ago and I am still honored.

In 1988 at Josh's 8th birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's I got in a fight with my friend Robert in the Ball Pit. I also cheated repeatedly at skee ball.

When I was in 7th grade I helped Josh and our friends Grant and Barrett make a movie for a school project. Josh was playing the role of a slave (don't ask) and to make him more authentic and sad looking we rubbed dirt all over him. The following Monday at school and for some time after he had severe poison oak. Sorry Josh.

My parents always liked Josh, he is very polite, and is no longer a picky eater. Josh is a renaissance man. He knows about, sports, movies, music, cars and all sorts of other stuff. He could stand to be a little more politically conservative, but nobody is perfect, right.

I have to mention Heather, Josh's wife. I have known Heather since Junior High and was in the Chemistry class where Heather was our TA and they started dating. They have a great home and a new baby girl. When Josh told me that they were going to name her Avery I knew it was a perfect name.Joshua Vandenberg Rose is just a great guy. Happy 28th birthday. Congratulations on all the great successes in your life. Thanks for being a great friend.

The Strange Nature of Blogs

I love my blog. Okay, that is probably a bit of an overstatement but I do enjoy having the chance to be a bit creative and share with the world (or the approximate 345 unique visitors) my take on things. Of course I am not the only person who feels this way. Thanks to google reader I follow 21 blogs. Some are very well written and some are kind of lame. At times I am very impressed by people's writing and other times I think to myself, why would you ever write that?



When I first started writing Pete Chat I wrote for myself. Just sort of a way to remember some of the happenings, as it evolved ( I became obsessed with comments) I started to write not just for me but for the people who read it. I'll write about a fun experience like meeting Wally Joyner, things that irritate me like tapered pants, or totally random things that just come to mind like going to cotillion. So there in lies the conflict. What makes something blogworthy?



I have no idea. I guess because the blog is a creative outlet anything you want to put up is blog worthy. But the mundane parts of your existence, the TMI experiences you share. Is it all something that you want to put out for the world to read?

Think before you blog.

Thank You Chris (and several other thank yous)

When I was a teenager I was a big fan of the Kevin and Bean morning show on KROQ. Although I listen mostly to Adam Corolla show nowadays I still like K&B. I remember years ago that the song "Thank You" by Alanis Morrisette was popular. So Kevin and Bean called a random hotel in India and said, "Is this India?" The operator responded, "Yes." And of course Kevin and Bean responded "Thank You." To this day I find that quite funny. So I thought I might say a few thank yous.



Thank you Christopher Columbus, for sort of discovering America and thus allowing me to have a day off from work. Sure you really found Hispaniola (modern day Dominican Republic and Haiti) and you were looking for India, but hey thanks anyways.



Thank you Gavin Brenier, Your performance in sacrament was unbelievable. During one meeting he managed to scream that he did not want to wear a tie, and then screamed where is my tie. Ate cheese and crackers and chucked the red spreading stick, demanded to be taken out of the chapel spilled the water on my pants, and use the phrase loudly during the closing prayer "Oh c'mon." Thank you for allowing me to have a very spiritual experience.

Thank you random pan handling lady from Saturday night. Because you weren't where you said would be after we got you groceries you gave my dad and brother in law ammunition to ridicule my sister's generosity.

Thank you Haydan and Bronte for eating my salt water taffy and then leaving various wrappers and discarded candy in my back seat and stuck to my 49ers jacket. That was great, I really appreciate it.

Thank you dad for your willingness to share the remote control for the "dish". I was all but forced to watch an episode of the Starter Wife.

And I would like to thank myself for calling my friend Jeff at midnight to discuss flag football from four years ago. I know that if I was stressing out with Medical school a phone call would be just what I would want when I am asleep.

So on Canadian Thanksgiving, there is a lot to be thankful for.

Arrrrrgh-Sometimes Says It Best

Good Grief...Not Again.

After a brief hiatus from blogging I am back. I've been home for the passes 10 days or so and haven't been much into blogging. My focus has been on the Angels playoff run which came to an abrupt end last night.

So here goes. I am sure all of you know what the Bat Signal is. When it is lit up the citizens of Gotham know that the Caped Crusader is needed.

Well I too have a bat signal of sorts. I and most of my friends in Washington are big fans of G-Chat. Google's instant messaging system. I like it's format and since a lot of my friends are on it is an easy way to communicate. I like to update my picture and status often. Sometimes it will be in reference to an inside joke, a funny line someone said recently, or very often in reference to how my sports teams have been playing. However there is one unmistakable status and accompanying picture and that is good old Charlie Brown. You know for sure that whenever I have Charlie Brown is my G Chat picture that something, annoying, irritating, or frustrating has occurred in my life. Sometimes by my own doing or sometimes by my associations.

Well as soon as I had the chance I changed my G-Chat picture to Charlie Brown because my beloved (and terribly frustrating) Angels lost and were eliminated from the playoffs.

Now most of you know that I am a HUGE Angels fan. I fully realize that I care too much, that my mood should not in any way be affected by a team that I have no control over. But jeez louise you invest so much in a season and when they lose in heart breaking fashion it really hurts.

When your team is mediocre this is not a big problem. When I was in junior high and high school the 49ers were consistently a good team, in the 1994 season they won the Super Bowl and made the playoff virtually every season. Then my freshman year of college, Steve Young was knocked out of the game forever and the team has been no better and much worse than mediocre since. When the team was good or reasonably good I took the losses so personally, I remember watching a game in 2003 and they lost a very winnable game at home against the Browns. I was so angry. I am the most loyal (not necessarily myopic) fan you can find but if my team loses I feel they have let me down so I will not wear there apparel the next day. They lost to a beatable Patriots team on Sunday and even though I listened to the game, I thought to myself, wow, they didn't play that bad, and went on about my day. This is how you react when your team isn't very good every win is a big bonus. Anyhow the Angels had their best regular season club in history. And with sucess comes expectations.This team was very complete, could win on the road and was fundamentally sound. Yet they lost. And it hurt...big time. In the course of just a few minutes had had gone from euphoria to desolation, all because of a game that I have zero control over and in no way has any bearing on life in the real world.

Usually when I'm sad I think, well maybe I will buy something and I will feel better I call that retail therapy something I learned from my sister Chrissi. But last night, there was nothing I could purchase, and I am not exaggerating that would have made me happy in that moment. When the winning play happened I let out a guttural roar slammed a pillow to the ground, had the desire to say many many bad words and break things. Because there were small children around the rage quickly changed to sadness and I sat there with my face in my hands wondering what went wrong? (The answer of course was the inability to drive base runners in, and close out innings)

You know what this feels like? Like getting dumped (a sensation I am all too familiar with). You know nothing you can do will change it, and it hurts and you wonder why you even bother putting the time in at all, only to be let down. Sure there were some good times (We’ll always have 2002) but you wonder was it worth it, all the anxiety they caused you? The money you spent (tickets, shirts, stuffed animals, jewelry), and the heart ache when it is over. My brother in law Don said to me “Peter, you realize you are the guy we all make fun of…the one who takes it all too seriously.” Yes I know. I am him…he is me. But as in relationships there is always a new one to look forward to. Catchers and pitchers will report, and we’ll begin again in the spring. Luckily I have the 49ers, Cougars, and Lakers as well, to root for as well as break my heart. The thing is, that when it is right and it does work out it is wonderful, I guess that’s why I keep going back.

Thank you to all who offered their sympathies.