In January 2019 life felt very overwhelming. Not only was Finn due soon, but a decision on Roscoe needed to be made and my sister's wedding was coming up soon followed by her graduation. The wedding, which would have been the dominant thing any other year, was a sort of sideshow to madness and seemed so very far away at that point. But time passed and soon it was in full focus as the major social event that it was.
Luckily Allie had her wedding in Austin which was very convenient for us. I got to see them as they came around to make the final plans, plus we didn't have to travel with a very young Finn early in his life to a different place for the event. The wedding was downtown in Austin and was pretty easy to get to plus it was on our turf so we became a base for planning. I helped a little with the planning but I was mostly busy with Finn, and for a while my sister was upset it seemed like we stole her thunder a little but she got over that as things fell into place.
The day of the wedding there was a good turnout as family from New Orleans combined with her college friends and family friends from Odessa. My dad was in poor health around this time and was surviving one nitro patch to another one, and the day of the wedding it made me sad to watch him barely hold himself together to get through the festivities. At one point I was scared he would never make it to that day, and in itself that was a victory.
As part of the event I got to meet my future brother in law and his family, and I got to spend time with the close group of friends they both made during their time in Austin. Given my lack of sleep and how different it was compared to the rest of my life then the entire event had a surreal feel to it, and during the family pictures and the ceremony I did my best to fit in and relate to this much younger crowd who were parts of my fantasy league or who were set to be a part of their lives going forward. My age felt apparent, and for the first time I no longer felt like a young man but instead as part of the old part of the family.
Eventually the day turned into night, and the preparations turned into a social event. I met with most of my family and talked through my big story of being a new dad, and did my best to go with the flow so no more thunder would be stolen. Lindsey drank a little and so did I, and even though we didn't get enough to eat everything went smoothly and I had fun making the rounds seeing Odessa people or Marsha or mom's family. I took on a ton parenting advice and talked about those early days with older parents who acted like they wished they could do it again one last time.
Then later when it shifted to being a reception and the dance music hit the surreal aspect of it faded away for me. Suddenly life felt more real than it had since before Finn was born, and the realization that my sister- Allie Smith- was in a way going away that night as her sphere of influence and priorities would shift to her new family, her new name, and her new place far away. I realized despite how crazy the year was this was an event I had waited most of my life to see, and I did my best to dance it up in the celebration of the moment.
Eventually the DJ turned to the song that my sister and I had bonded over so many times- September- and I ran back on the dance floor after a break for me to jump on that opportunity to dance with her. I stayed out there until every song was done and people went there own ways, satisfied that I had enough memories to carve through the haze that was my life in that time period.
The day after the wedding was a huge social event in itself, as most of my family came to my house to meet Finn before they left town. He got to meet for the first time family members that he might not see again until he is much older if ever, and I got to show off my house from the future I had worked so hard on in 2018 (so much I felt like a jackass about it later). We went out to eat afterwards and I got to soak up a moment when the world came to me instead of us having to go to it, all thanks to her wedding.
When it was finally all over and everyone left I had a tinge of sadness that a once in a lifetime event had passed, and that meant also saying goodbye somewhat to my sister as she moved from part of my sphere to one of her own. We had officially grown up and that weekend made it clear, and in a way was the sort of keystone that you look back on in life long after its gone.
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