Mark McBride Ties The Knot
My very first friend growing up, Mr. Mark McBride, got married over the weekend. I went back to Buffalo for the wedding and festivities for a fantastic weekend.
Friday
The flight out was pretty basic. It was nice getting into Buffalo so early...it was the first time I had done so. I wish Erin could have come.
After I arrived, Chris picked me up at the airport. We went to Nig's shop to pick up his dune buggy - at least that's what I call it. It's a Suzuki Sidekick. I love the way it drives.
We got to Lynn's house about 11:45. I called Judy and Lynn at their work and we decided to meet up for lunch. I met them at the credit union and we ate some lunch in their 'conference room'. It was cool. Great Nino's pizza...
Because I needed a haircut, I went over to Burn's in the plaza. I hadn't seen Mike in awhile . It was perfect timing. I waited only a bit to get in the chair.
After the buzz, I headed off to Tom Feeley's for a birthday party for his daughter Devon. I got there around 3:15. It was great to seem everybody. Mr & Mrs Feeley we're there, so was Ann Marie. I hadn't got to see most of them in awhile - probably 5-6 years. Mr. Feeley is still a riot. They both looked great.
There were a lot of kids and stuff at Tom's. Tom's neighbor's, child friends and family. Tony Finaldi and his wife stopped by as well, with their two kids. Hadn't seen Tony in five-or-six years. It was great to catch up. I ended up leaving about quarter past six. I had planned on meeting up with John Dray and Hummel to go out.
I called Hummel and picked him up about 7:30. Dray had to go to a wake, but we met at Checker's on Hertel about 8:15 pm. It was good to see him. He looked great. Mineo showed up about 8:45. The kid is still a concept! Hadn't seen Tommy probably since before I moved to Raleigh. He lives on Grand Island now and still drives a kick'en older car. Mineo always had a penchant to such things; some stuff never changes...
We hung out until about midnight. It was the first time I had ever been to the place. Everybody at the Bridge had always talked about Checker's. I think Tommy Downing used to go there a lot. What's messed-up though, is that you can't smoke in the bar. It's whacked. This will probably be happening in Raleigh not to far in the future...
After we left, I wanted to stop by the Hippodrome to shot some. They had moved from downtown a couple of years prior and I wanted to check it out. I ended up getting to talk to Dick Vallone a bit. Even got to see Jeff Van Buren of all people. Jeff is the one who bought Shooter from me way back in ’94. He was re-starting Shooter and I brought a couple of copies home. It was great to make contact with him and I hope he emails me or something.
We jetted about 12:15 am and on our way home, Mark talked me into stopping for some take out. Slime dogs basically. Buffalo has great food; something I miss. Anyways, I got back to Lynn's around 1:00 am. Lynn and I watched a movie and I crashed about 2:30 am.
Saturday
Mark's wedding ceremony was scheduled for 11:30 am at St. John Vianney. I got to the church about 11:15 am. I hadn't seem some of Mark's family is about 25 years. I took a bunch of photos and since I had never shot a wedding before, I thought I'd make the best use of the opportunity for practice. I got back from the ceremony about 1:00 pm; I had stayed a little bit later to help take some of the group shots for Mark's family.
When I got home, I showed Lynn all the photos I took. Since they're were some people there that Lynn or I hadn't seen in years. It was good to catch up. I got to see the Biemlers for the first time. Mrs. Bacher. Even Mrs. Kelleher. After we went through them, I called Hummell and hung out with him for a bit. Came back home and burned a CD of the images, Also, because it took Erin and I so long to get ours back, I know they'll both appreciate looking at them on their honeymoon. That was the only thing that sort of sucked with our wedding: waiting for the photos.
The reception started at 3:00 and I got there around 3:45. It took place at The Knox Farm in East Aurora. Never had been there either. Mark and Amy had about 60 people. I got to catch up with Peter Canney and his wife, as well as Tom Dougherty and his wife. The food was great. After hanging out for a bit, I left around 6:00. I got back to Lynn's and chatted with her a bit. Called Erin.
With the night essentially free, I thought that I would play in Skulski's tournament they used to have on Saturday nights. Well, I went down there. Turn's out they closed back in November. Going back up Clinton, I decided to stop in Pocketeer. I went in and asked them if there were any tournaments they know of. Turned out that Diane Skulski was now working at the Metropolitan next door. I went over to say hello. They had their tables set up. After playing a couple of games and shooting the shit, Diane convinced me to try to go and find Norm again. I went back down Clinton and rapped on the door a few times. He wasn't there , so I finally gave up.
Now it was about 8:00 and I had nothing to do. I thought about going to Classic, but decided it was too far. I ended up calling John Dray and went to his house on Manchester. We hung out for awhilea and watched the race, went to go see his new house and then came back. I waited for a call.
Earlier, before I had left for the night, Lynn told me to give Tiffany a call later. She'd told me all about her new apartment and was dying to have me see it. I called Tiffany and we decided to meet up after she got out of work.
Her place is on West Utica, right near Elmwood. It's a great apartment. Her roommate's mother is an interior decorator and the place looked wonderful. I shot a bunch of photos of it. I even got to meet her roommate Michael. After seeing the place, we decided to go around the block to Faherty's. I used to go there on the weekends in the day. I ended up knocking them around for awhile. We left about 1:00 am, got a couple of slices on the way back. Even bumped into Todd Sedeegan, this dude I went to college with. Still the same; story-after-story.
I got home to Lynn's about ten mintues of 2:00 am. I was beat. I read the copy of the new Shooter I had and crashed.
Thinking about the weekend, it was great that I ended up having so much time. I got to see a lot of people. Do a lot of shit and wasn't rushed. The only bad thing was not having Erin there...she would have had a great time.