(Sunday Paper, Volume II, Issue 19)

This weekend I'm celebrating my cousin's wedding.

It's actually the son of my oldest cousin on my mom's side.

So, you know, first cousin once removed or something like that.

That's me and him there on the left - I was his confirmation sponsor. (He chose wisely.)

Obviously this is a joyous occasion - but it also is one of those life markers that tells me I'm getting old.

Here's what happened for the first time Saturday night - I attended the wedding of the child of someone whose wedding I attended.

This didn't occur to me until a couple of weeks ago - but it seems pretty significant.

My cousin got married - I'm going to do some guesswork here - in November of, let's say, 1988. That was kind of the first round of weddings to which I was invited as a kid.

The groom of Saturday's wedding (I don't know why I'm not using names, but we've come this far without them so I'll continue to avoid them) was born probably in 1989. And now he's married.

Thus, he becomes the first child of a wedding I attended to get married. And I was at both weddings.

Now, full disclosure: I didn't actually attend the wedding earlier on Saturday. My middle daughter's (no names!) Communion was Saturday morning, and Kathy (one name) and I drove down for the party after that and by the time you are reading this we're probably already back home in Massachusetts after celebrating with the bride and groom and others.

But that shouldn't change the fact that this is a significant life milestone.

And this newly married couple could become part of my attendance at three generations of weddings, if they decide to have children, and if one of those children decides to get married someday, and if that child decides to invite to their wedding an old man in his seventies or eighties who gets a kick out of quirky wedding facts.

Writing

*Whoa boy, what an unproductive week. I submitted something early in the week and then made the mistake of sitting and waiting for a reply and constantly checking e-mail and that's the wrong wrong wrong approach but I couldn't help myself. So I was a little down and out about it and didn't do much else. Did get some yard work done on Thursday, though, so the decks are cleared for a productive next week.

Comedy

*Relatively quiet week after the big auction last week. (That went pretty much how I predicted last week.) Hit an open mic on Wednesday to try out some potential Mother's Day jokes for the big Mother's Day show (Buy tickets at the link!) and then had a show on the Cape Thursday night. The guys who run the show I did at the Sea Dog Brewery run a bunch of shows on the Cape these days and they do a really good job with them and I'm hoping to get back down for more of their shows.

*In addition to the big Mother's Day show (Come on out! Buy tickets at the link!), I'm at Iron Furnace in Quincy (haven't been there in so long because Kathy has had classes on Tuesday nights and now she's moving to different nights but I'll be able to get out on Tuesdays from now on) on Tuesday, Stand Up Break In (I love it there as you well know) on Thursday, and then it's Mother's Day (buy tickets at the link!) already, which I can't believe. Check the 'Comedy Shows' link up top for other shows happening this month.

What I've Been Enjoying

*If you sat me down right now and demanded I tell you who my favorite author is, I would probably panic and then after stumbling over my answer I'd finally spit out George Saunders. I haven't yet read his newest book (I'm weird about things like that - if I don't devour it right away I'll let it sit for a while and build up to it so as not to let something new that I will most likely enjoy be gone immediately), but I'll get there soon.

What I always enjoy - and what I enjoyed this week - wasn't the writing of George Saunders, but hearing George Saunders talk about his writing. He was the guest on 'Bullseye', which I know I told you about recently, but this is why I listen to the show - there are good interviews. And at first I was disappointed because when I saw Saunders' name I thought it was a repeat episode. But, nope, it was a brand-new interview with Saunders. (I think this is his third time on the show.) And I can't tell you how much smarter I feel just hearing that guy talk - yes, about writing, but about anything really. I can't get over the fact that he teaches at Syracuse. I know I wouldn't have appreciated at college age having such an expert in the field as a college teacher....I wonder if his students are able to appreciate what they have. I wonder what it's like to listen to Saunders in a classroom. I kind of feel sad about the fact that I'll never get the chance to experience that. But at least there are interviews like this one.

Notes

*Oh man. I just remembered as I was writing this post that at the 1988 wedding my brother was the ring bearer. He looked great in his fancy tux, but refused to dance with the flower girl.

*I really liked reading about this high school kid Hunter Greene in last week's Sports Illustrated. He's a shortstop/pitching prospect in California and it sounds like he's a great kid. But it always makes me wary when a kid that young is featured on the cover of SI. Hope everything works out well for him - I'll be rooting for him.

*Everything has gone wrong for the Mets these past couple of weeks, but somehow they have won more games than they've lost in the past week-plus. I doubt they'll be able to sustain that...but unfortunately, we know from experience this is when Terry Collins has done his best work with this team. So it's tough to count them out right now.

*Monday is my wedding anniversary. It's kind of funny that I'm writing about a wedding this weekend, the weekend 13 years ago Kathy and I got married. Seven years ago, in the original iteration of the Sunday Paper (these Real Clear Sports links look worse and worse every time I link to them), I wrote about how lucky I am to be married to a woman who understands my crazy sports obsessions. I'm still lucky, and someday I'll write something new about that. But for now you can go back and read Year 2, Volume XIX of the original Sunday Paper.