Norman never disappoints

The wedding weekend was pretty much everything I'd hoped it would be. K and I stopped off to see my dad on the way up, and I gave him his Father's Day gift -- a tennis racket, tennis balls and tennis lessons. My brother and I also got a racket for Dad's girlfriend, thinking if Dad had a partner to play against, he'd be more likely to use his gift and enjoy doing it. He liked his present. Hopefully he uses it. It'll be good for him.

K and I enjoyed some barbecue with my dad, his girlfriend and my grandparents before finishing our trek to Norman.

The wedding was at the church I went to with ER in college. I knew if K and I got married in Norman, it would probably be at that church. It's a gorgeous church. It's full of dark wood and pretty stained glass windows on either side that let in some great light. The exterior of the church is beautiful. I had forgotten one thing, though: It had no center aisle. In fact, the two aisles it did have were pretty thin. My feelings that Norman would be the perfect wedding place lessened a little after realizing that, which is actually good -- it means we can move forward with the Dallas wedding plans without visions of a perfect wedding in Norman popping up in my head the whole time.

My friends' wedding was beautiful. Several of my college friends played a part in the ceremony, so it was like a little mini-reunion. The bride looked beautiful. She held together through the ceremony and didn't really cry. I figured she'd bawl.















The reception was a blast. I sat with ER and her family. K and ER's dad bonded quite a bit talking about boy stuff. That was cool to see, since ER's family refers to me as their adopted Oklahoma daughter.

I wasn't disappointed about the events of the reception. We girls sang our horrible (we all hate i!) sorority song and got to hear the guys sing their awesome (so much better than ours!) fraternity song. I was really glad K got to experience that. He actually said it was cool.















I enjoyed catching up with so many people I hadn't seen in years, and it was great for K to get a chance to meet some of them too. There was a dance floor, but it was way too hot in that area. I heard a few people saying the air conditioner had broken, but I wasn't sure if that was true. Lucky for us, we were all sitting in an area where it was somehow cooler and there was room for us to dance on our own. ER's parents took a ballroom dance class a few years ago, so they were pulling us all out one by one and showing us how to Salsa, do the Romba and the Samba and others. It was neat to see them dancing together, too. They're really good!

The reception was over way too quickly at 11, so we all headed out to a bar to hang out some more. The bar was one we went to often in college, known for its frozen Sangria swirls, so we enjoyed those and a couple shots. We had a blast.

Everyone was telling me how great K was and how much they liked him. It dawned on me a few weeks ago that K is the Loud Guy. Wherever we go, he's the one people notice because he tends to get a little louder than everyone else. Before K, the Loud Guy was the fun guy to hang out with, but I knew I could never date a Loud Guy -- I'd be humiliated. Well, with K, it's endearing. He just has a good time, and we have fun together. I'm no quiet girl myself, since I can talk to almost anyone, but my volume level just doesn't go as high as K's. It couldn't if I wanted it to. At least K doesn't go overboard, though. Everyone just laughs about it.

What's funny is ER's dad said, "You know what, K? It's okay to be the Loud Guy. I'm the Loud Guy. All it means is you get more stuff than everyone else, or you get served first because they want you to shut up or they wanna get you out of there. Being the Loud Guy has its perks." We laughed at that, and ER, her mom and sister gave nods that said he wasn't kidding.

Sunday, K and I got up early, ate lunch and headed back to Dallas. We relaxed around my apartment doing laundry and watching Rocky before K headed back to Louisiana. He's headed up to We$t Po!nt this week to train some cadets, and he won't be finished until July 4. He'll just head down to PA to see his family. That means I won't get to see him until I make it up there sometime around the weekend of July 13. It sucks we won't get to see each other for so long, but at least we had such a fun weekend before he left.











Even the Loud Guy needs his sleep! (K was so exhausted he started falling asleep at the bar.)