marriage doesn't suck

We just watched Bridesmaids on HBO OnDemand at my parents' house. Hilarious. However, it's the latest in number of otherwise comedies that insist on uniformly painting marriage as a horrible dungeon while still wanting the audience to root for the protagonist to find happiness by...what else? Getting married.

In this movie, each of the bridesmaids shares that their married lives are terrible. The only exception is the groom's sister, who proceeds to share that the groom is a "let's face it, a complete asshole." So now the bride is going to be in a terrible marriage.

OK, I get it, Bridesmaids is not Film. It's not Cinema. It's not even Comedy. It's comedy. With a lot of gross out humor. So I'm not expecting deep character growth, or even meaningful character arcs. But how about at least one person with a normal marriage. And I don't mean a perfect marriage. Or a boring a marriage. It could even be a sub-par marriage. Or one that is good most of the time, but has some low points. It would at least draw some contrasts, and make for an interesting movie. But in the absence of doing so, what are we left to infer from this fairly consistent (Old School, I Love You Man) record is that marriage blow goats.

I'm not sure where this toddler came from...

cincy.9.joe+lark+ba, a photo by Wintermute Lives on Flickr.

While the walker is a great new gift...

cincy.1.lark and her walker a video by Wintermute Lives on Flickr.

...Lark REALLY likes Mr. Potato Head's glasses

Lark is delighted to be in her Ba's arms

cincy.2.ba+lark a video by Wintermute Lives on Flickr.

Greetings from the Nati

cincy.7.looking at the deck, a photo by Wintermute Lives on Flickr.

Group Transportation

IMG-20111210-01475.jpg, a photo by Wintermute Lives on Flickr.

Since 90% of our group will be living in Atlanta by the time we have our annual summer get-together, I found an ideal vehicle for getting the whole gang to Florida.

Atlanta awaits

Fwd: IMG-20111210-01478.jpg, a photo by Wintermute Lives on Flickr.

It's been my dream that all of my best friends would one day live in one place. I met Chief Chick on the first day of college, literally--she lived two doors down from me on my freshman dorm. I've known Momma Cass since the second week of freshman year (when I was briefly seeing a girl, long forgotten to the history books, on her floor). I met McGruber later that semester when I pledged Chi Phi. The Chief was in my pledge class, and that's how he met Chief Chick. I met Ms. Bloodninja that first semester (albeit, briefly) when my room mate was seeing her room mate in the dorm next to mine. I really got to know her and Bloodninja the following year when he pledged Chi Phi. I've been roommates with McGuber, the Chief, and Bloodninja at various times. I met J-watt at some point in freshman year; at the time, we didn't know that we grew up about 20 minutes from each other in upstate NY. Over the years, we've added three significant others to the group: Dr. W, Jug, Matt, and Rebecca.

Since we graduated from college, there has usually been a few of us in the same city. I've managed to actually live with everyone by moving every few years. Bloodninja and I lived in NY 2000 to 2001; then Bloodninja and I moved to Atlanta, where as roommates I met Dr. W through J-watt, and McGruber moved back to Atlanta that same year, plus Momma Cass was there for a few of those years--basically, the six of us more or less until 2003. That first historic Halloween party of Dr. W's had McGruber, Momma Cass, Jug, Bloodninja, J-watt and me all at Dr. W's house.

Around 2003, Bloodninja and Mrs. Bloodninja ended up in Austin, I went to Boston, and for a week, the Chief and Chief Chick were there. Then they moved to DC. In 2005, when I finished school and returned to Atlanta to get married, McGuber was finish his grad school program at University of Michigan; so for a year, he, J-watt, Dr. W, and me were all together.

Then, Dr. W and I headed to South Florida for her job. Momma Cass and Jug were there for her doctoral program @ FIU, so for a year, the four of us were together. We then headed up to DC, and for four-plus years, we were reunited with the Chief and Chief chick.

And this past summer, we came back to Atlanta. In August, Momma Cass and Jug arrived from Little Rock.

And this past week, the Chief sealed the deal with his new employer. He, Chief Chick and Sawyeroid will be moving to Atlanta later this winter.

9 out of 11 of my best friends will now live in the same city. I've been waiting for this day for so long.

And, perhaps one day, we'll make it 11 out of 11.

Dude, you're a barista

wintermute + stinky & our girls

IMG_1394, a photo by Wintermute Lives on Flickr.

Stinky and his brood hung out with us this weekend, and we went to the merry-go-round in Piedmont Park. Here's Lark showing quite a bit of interest in her new friend.