One really crazy couple of days happened in 2011. I was working overnights at the time, so there was a tired glaze on everything. It started on October 27, which was the day before my wedding. Some time before, I'd given each of my three groomsmen PSPs with Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, which we were all getting into. The day of the rehearsal/dinner, the Cardinals (I live in St Louis) were in game 6 of the World Series, so we went to a bar next to the dinner afterward with friends to watch the game. It looked like they were sure to lose, so the groomsmen all headed over to my buddy's house to hang out.

We all fired up our PSPs and started hunting monsters, and we turned on the TV to see the final... the game was still going on in extra innings! It turned out to be a wild finish, and we had a blast watching and hunting monsters. We kept playing until about 4am, watching TV in the background, laughing, and joking.

We got back together around 8AM. We hit the ground running with breakfast and playing more Monster Hunter. At lunch time, we went WAY out of the way (about 45 minutes one way) for my favorite pizza (Pantera's). While we were walking in, my mom called. My granda had just died, some 4 hours before the wedding. It was one of those super weird moments where I was exhausted, happy, sad, hungry, and nervous (about the wedding) all at once. I have no idea how I was supposed to feel. Everyone looked at me and my friend asked, "What do we need to do?"

"Um, let's eat."

We went in, ordered a ton of pizza, talked for a minute, but as there was nothing I could do in the situation, we fired up those PSPs and resumed the hunt, and soon enough we were laughing again. Maybe not as hard, but we were getting back on track.

Afterward, they took me to my favorite store ever (that's now closed), The Game Trader in St Charles. I wanted to pick up a copy of Ryu Ga Gotoku Kenzan for PS3 the owner had ordered in for me. My awesome groomsmen decided to get me presents. I ended up with Monster Hunter Portable 3 remastered on PS3, Monster Hunter Tri w/the controller on Wii, and R-Type Complete on PC Engine CD.

After a few last-minute errands, we got to the church to get ready. I wore the Franklin Badge from the Mother 3 limited box on my tux. The wedding went well.

During the reception at the Chase hotel, the Cardinals won the World Series at home. It was only a few block away, so we all went outside on the massive balcony to the ballroom and watched the fireworks over the stadium.

I was exhausted, but I didn't sleep that night, even with the massive drive the next day for the honeymoon. It was just all too much, and I was completely overloaded. I just sat there all night after my new bride fell asleep trying to figure out what I was supposed to feel like.

I never figured it out, but it was all in all a damn good day.