A Measure of Redemption

I am just back from Detroit, where my main man Steve-O got married. At 42, it was a long time coming but in the end, he did very, very well and his bride is super cool (arguably cooler than him -- let's see if that merits a response). Anyway, it was a festive occasion and we did more than our fare share of celebrating. It was a Sunday night wedding so we had plenty of warm up getting ready for the big event. I am so tired I literally feel like a zombie.

Aside from watching one of my closest friends walk down the aisle, one of the more gratifying elements for me personally was the toast I gave on Saturday night. A little background: about 17 years ago, I gave a toast for another friend's wedding, and I bombed. And I mean bombed. I don't really mind, especially in that I learned an important lesson that I have continued to apply to this day: never go into a speech unprepared. And by that, I mean it's imperative to have written remarks.

However, my boys have been giving me nonstop grief over this speech literally every time we are together. It's not a matter of when I will catch (at least) ten minutes of grief about that speech, it's a matter of when the discussion will arise.

After 17 years, I can take it, as it's deserved, and I am fairly adept at dishing it out pretty well myself. However, when I was asked to give a speech at this wedding, I knew this was my one shot at relative redemption and if I bombed again, I'd have no choice but to jump over the Golden Gate Bridge. It would have been my only recourse.

So, I took this speech pretty seriously. I wasn't really too concerned about the other 140 guests or so who were listening; again, it was the Michigan boys I was singularly worried about.

The long story short, I think and hope that I earned myself a measure of redemption. I will let Dave, Payro or Wiley to post a comment beyond that if they are so inclined, but suffice to say, for one weekend at least, I was able to put my performance from 17 years ago behind me.

Anyway, that's about it for tonight; I am literally falling asleep standing.