Gangstanza

My Blog Catalog ranking jumped nearly 10 points after two weeks of not posting anything, which more or less means Blog Catalog, like most everybody else in my life, prefers it when I'm not around. The only two whom seem to have what it takes to tolerate someone like me for extended periods are my cat, who, since I got back, has been snug in one arm, and my wife, cozied in the other. A year ago or so, she decided to quit her life as a successful architect in fashion-glam Paris, France, her family, her friends, and move to dairy-glam Madison, Wisconsin to marry me. What a fool and talk about pressure. I imagine her loved ones had the same reaction as Franke and Estelle did when George called announcing his engagement to Susan, though all have done a magnificent job of hiding their reservations; I've never felt so accepted by strangers, though maybe it's just standard European hospitality. If so, I'll take it, especially having just returned from our wedding in Las Vegas where I'm sure I made an entire fool of myself in front of them, speaking and dancing out of turn like a drunk eight-year old. I'll spare you the gory details and just say it was as splendid as these things go. Following the wedding, we honeymooned in beautiful Kaua'i, an island full of lush tropical gardens, astonishingly well-defined rainbows, and more PT Cruisers per capita than anywhere else in existence. We counted 159 on one day alone. For an island no more than 560 square miles in size and with a population of 70,000 (people and chickens), this was impressive.