Confluence

Um... where does one even start with this?

Well, perhaps I'll begin by stating that whatever shows up here is going to be a shell of a shell of the event itself. At some point I'll sit down with all the pictures, videos (eek!) , transcripts and everything and turn beckandnate.com into a CRAZY piece of archiving. For now, I expect that many of the posts to come will feature here and there accounts, pictures, sentiments, and overall a whole lot of borderline tear-jerking, sap-laden effusings of just what a FANTASTIC, peak-of-life experience that our families and friends made our wedding.

Ben, he of Grinning fame, told us on a couple of occasions what a great feeling it was for him to be at his wedding and see people from all aspects of his life and realize that they were there for him and Ali. I, being the cynical nitwit that I am, never really fully bought into this idea, feeling that there would be plenty of meta-cultural analysis and over-cerebral thoughts of the lifehood of the wedding meme raging in my brain throughout the event. And I don't think I had quite the same feeling as Ben - I didn't really engage it on a level of how cool it was because they were all there - though it certainly was - but I found myself in utter admiration of the quality, the transcendentally excellent essence of the people that Beck and I have managed to surround ourselves with over the years. Every turn at the party put me face to face with a friend from a different walk, and each one was sending me into a tailspin of recollective shmarmy. Missouri cousins, former roommates, teammates, childhood friends, e-men, and all fo them awesome to a T (is for the T in...). Seriously, props to the Tufts "Hell's Angels" E-men, who definitely brought a dose of wacky to the party, but that only smacked faces with the still living and breathing Rice party that apparently can rage out at a moment's whiskey, er, notice. Really, really, wow.

So I wanted to get that gush out of the way; coming up will be a litany of pics and videos and accounts of a crazy, crazy couple of days that in no way could have been better. THANKS so much to everyone involved and everyone who made me full force forget what a depressed goof I can be; this was just an ecstatic experience of life-fullfilling itness.

And how.