Not my wedding, though; my good friends Sean and Jenniah were wed in a beautiful ceremony this weekend. I’m so happy for them-I was there when they got engaged, and I was there while they both stressed out leading to the big day, and I can only imagine how relieved they must both feel now that it’s all over and said and done. Must say though, I can only hope that when its my turn to put on a tuxedo that I look as sharp as Sean did. A beautiful ceremony, an amazingly fun reception, and even the after party at the bar across from the hotel that all of the wedding guests were staying at was a good time, albeit short. Definitely a weekend well spent, and an event I wouldn’t have missed for the world.

My only regret? I totally forgot my camera, so no photos of the proceedings from me, I’m afraid, but it was beautiful, take my word.

I was almost worried that I wouldn’t make it; on Thursday I got out to my car in the parking lot of the new office to find that I had a brilliantly flat tire on the front driver’s side of my car. I thought for an instant that I might be able to drive on it just far enough to try putting some air into it, but the way the car listed to the left as soon as I hit about 10 miles per hour said differently. So I pulled over to the side, jacked up the car, tossed on the donut (I didn’t make my record-the record is from a flat to a donut in 10 minutes, which I hit when I was working “for” Apple a few years back-I had missed my second day of work because I overslept, but blamed it on “car problems.” Well, I went out for lunch on my third day and promptly blew out my tire with something like a half-hour to get back to the office, and calling my boss and saying I had “car problems” again simply wouldn’t fly. So I, in a near panic, somehow managed to change my tire in 10 minutes.) tightened it up, and was on my way inside of 20 minutes this time. I managed to pick Raevyn up from the train station in decent time, and since we were headed out of town for the wedding on Friday, we had planned to do our grocery shopping that night. After grabbing a coffee, I mused that I should try to stop at a Merchant’s Tire and Auto Repair that I knew on the way home, so I swung in only to find they didn’t have any tires in stock at the moment that would fit my car. The clerk suggested I stop by an National Tire and Battery right around the corner, so after a little difficulty finding it we did.

I pulled in about 10-15 minutes before they were due to close, expecting to just buy a replacement tire and mount it myself without having to keep the store open later than normal. The mechanic there came out with me to see the flat tire, and we were both glaring at the screw that somehow had managed to get itself buried to the flat in the treads, when he said something I didn’t expect:

“This is repairable.”
I was stunned. “Are you sure? I mean, I don’t want to keep you guys open, I’d be happy to take a tire and mount it myself…”
“Nah, it’ll only take a few minutes to repair this one. Besides, if you buy a tire, you should probably buy two, otherwise the balancing and alignment will be off.”
“True…but…”
“Lemme just get the key.”
“… Okay…,” I replied, and handed over my key.

He hopped in the car, drove her inside the garage, and went to work. By the time he drove in, it was about 5 minutes to close. By the time he was finished, the store should have closed about 15 minutes ago. The best part? He was happy to do it. I didn’t once get the sense that I was putting him out, except for his bemused smile at me being worried about just that.

He left me to the closing clerk, who was to finish the paperwork and charge me the 24 dollars for the tire repair. (this, after I had been expecting to drop 80-100 for a new tire) The clerk inside the store printed off my reciept, and said “This one’s on the house today.”

I blinked. “Whoa…really? Er…Thank you!” I couldn’t believe what was happening-not only did I keep these fine people in the office a half-hour late, but they weren’t even going to charge me for the last-minute work.
“Yeah, I already closed the books, so it’s a freebie! Just come back sometime, okay? Remember that NTB hooked you up!”

I was flabbergasted. I assured him that I’d be back, put my wallet away, and took my reciept, which proudly read $0.00, and we were out in time to do our grocery shopping.

It was an exciting end to the week, and an exciting weekend, at that. It was such a thrill to see all of our friends from Pennsylvania again that we don’t get to see very often and hang out with them all over a few drinks and a very very special occasion. Every now and again, a few good things happen in succession that it’s difficult not to look at everything with a positive outlook. Even things are going well at werk, albeit challenging, but that’s everything I was looking for when I changed jobs. Again, no complaints.