So the time has almost come. This Saturday Phil and Helen are getting married. Between now and then, I have to accomplish the following things: get pants hemmed, go to soccer game, go to roller skating, buy 44 bottles of cider, plan party for Phil, get hair cut, possibly shave, finish writing wedding ceremony, pick up flowers, clean my house, and any number of other things.
I’m a little stressed out. I guess the ceremony itself is the thing that I’m most stressed out about. I don’t have a lot of experience in speaking in front of a lot of people. And this is going to be reading something that I have written, and that is expected to be a lot of things that it isn’t. I haven’t shared it with anyone, and I don’t plan on it, except Kelly as a sort of “emergency editor”, meaning I don’t want her to change anything, but just warn me if I’ve left in anything that shouldn’t be there, or forgotten to finish any sentences. Things like that. I think it is heartfelt, but I worry that it is cheesy. I worry that people are expecting it to be funny, but it is hard to be funny in this sort of situation, especially when sarcasm and snark are taken off the table. There are some good lines, but I worry about a lack of internal cohesion. Oh well. This is why I am taking Friday off. Lots of time to polish it up.
Most of you reading this will probably be there, and you’ll probably at some point feel an urge to tell me that what I did was good, even if it sucked. Please don’t do that. I’m really honestly curious if what I’m going to attempt to do here will work.
So now I’m off to try to find some Cantonese sayings, and see if there is anyway in hell I can figure out how to pronounce them. Wish me luck.
5 Comments
You can count on me to tell you that you sucked, even if you did good.
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Happy Wedding Day, Helen and Phil !!!
Unfortunately I will only be able to make it to Toronto this Saturday
)
But hopefully Mario’s Lovers will be there (please ask E for more info
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Sarcasm is off the table? You better tell that to my mom… She might need to adapt her reading accordingly! =)
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Nathan, remember when you are speaking before a group of people that they have no idea what you are going to say, so as long as you don’t show it on your face, the audience will never know if you messed up your speech. Of course there is always the old saying that when you get nervous about speaking before a group, picture the audience nude.
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Nathan, you did an absolutely, honest to goodness, fabulous job. I was actually worried that you weren’t going to be yourself enough. The officiating turned out as a good balance of funny and sentimental. Also a very personal, touching, and one-of-a-kind experience that Phil and I will cherish forever. Thank you.
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