So starts the last eight days before I go under the oral surgeon's knife. I have two major projects I need to get more or less finished this week and a third one I need to ensure is guided smoothly along towards its eventual fantastic conclusion. If this were a movie, my waking up this morning would have been accompanied with that thudding bass line and electric synths from the Mortal Kombat theme. Let's get ready to rumble.

Before I do, though, I would like to share with you the adventures of my weekend. The weekend was really very cool, with the exception of spending something like twenty hours of it in the car. Saturday I got up bright and early (like 5AM) to head from Bethesda, Maryland back to my parents' house in Shreve, Ohio. I wound up taking a brief detour through Akron to swing by and pick up the last elements of my wedding presents, but made it back in time to catch the end of the Ohio State game. (Go Bucks!) I swear, if we don't start playing better this year, the OSU-Michigan game is going to be a travesty. Anyway, made it back, got all the presents wrapped and the shirts pressed and whatnot, and made it to the wedding on time. It seems like Kris, one of my oldest friends and literally the girl next door, has chosen herself a fine husband. Kristina Lynne Berkey Prater. Kris Prater. That's going to take some getting used to. Just like when my cousin Phil got hitched, I found myself grinning for the rest of the weekend and saying over and over, "Dude, Kris got married!" Actually, this one doesn't blow my mind as much as little cousin Phil getting married. Kris getting married is a Good Thing – it's time for all of us to start tying knots and settling down, yadda yadda. I'm proud of her.

Anyway, so we stayed at the wedding until ten o'clock or so, by which point I was utterly blitzed. I found myself wishing that it hadn't been a dry wedding, because feeling the way I did would have been easier to blame on wine or champagne instead of just spending eight hours in a car, but I guess that counts too. After we left, I wound up talking with Mom for an hour or so about politics and the legal issues of porn (whether or not it's the act or the concept we're trying to outlaw, a really great conversation) and then I crashed back in my old bed, where I proceeded to sleep like a whole stack of logs.

Sunday I woke up full of get-up-and-go, so I got up and went. Showered quickly, said g'bye to the folks and then headed, not for DC immediately, but out to Wooster, where I did The Lap. Whenever I go back to the old hometown, I always do a lap before I leave, to see what's changing, what's gone away, what's arrived, you know. This time I was floored to see a brand shiny new Best Buy squatting up in the north end of town. This is huge. A Best Buy in Wooster is yet another instance of the encroachment of the outside world on our little town. When I was growing up, the only stores from the outside world were K-Mart, Sears and a couple still primarily local chains like Quality Farm and Fleet, Beuhler's and Big Wheel. (Big Wheel was kind of like an el cheapo Wal-Mart.) Since then we've been invaded with Wal-Mart, Elder-Beerman, Lowe's, and now Best Buy. I'm happy about the arrival of Best Buy, since I'm now thrilled there will be a place to buy last-minute Christmas presents, but, well... Change. You know how it goes.

An exponentially worse change is the departure of the families of two of my bestest friends, the Beesons and the Avellones. That's depressing. It always sucks to see good people leave, especially people whom I consider to have had the best of all possible influences on the area. Christmas this year is going to suck, not being able to drop in on them. It may be time to start looking for new traditions.

Right, travel stories. After The Lap, I headed down to Columbus and Graeter's, this fantastic chain of ice cream shops to which we Kenyon alums are utterly addicted. My friends Nick F. and SarahScott consider me the "dealer" for this stuff, since I'm the only one of us who has family in Ohio, so I took the 2-3 hour detour down that-a-way to pick up a cooler full of pints. This was not an utterly selfless act, since I know that next week ice cream may be a very welcome substance. After I picked up the stuff and puttered around Easton Town Center a while (this megahuge mall-slash-1950s-theme-park built by Mickey Wexler, the Columbus billionaire behind The Gap), it was time to head East again. Lord, doing that drive twice in two days sucks. Luckily, I had the best of all possible aural company – I got to chat for a while with Talon and Ruth (who is also in Chicago) and finally for a few hours with the lovely, inimitable Miss Kate. That was nice. Really, really nice. I can't wait to see her this weekend.

But! Before I can do so, I must first lay waste to these two massive mondo huge projects which lie before me! Let the finishing season begin. Let's rock and roll!