grooms "man," clare charles, yes she is a woman. clare is one of my cousins from england. actually, she's not, but i always thought she was. as the story goes her mom is/was an orphan and was hired by my grandpa to watch after my mom and her sisters. my mom and clares mom were close in age so they became more of best friends than a nanny-child relationship. thus when all us kids came along sylvia (clare's mom) was just like an auntie and clare & her bro jonathan were cousins as far as i knew.
somewhere in '96 clare and i struck up a friendship beyond what us cousin's had enjoyed to that point. we were pen pals for a number of years and then once the internet became a means, we did the chat stuff across the pond to each other. she's come over here a time or two spending a few weeks of vacation with me & my friends, doing whatever it is that we do.
she's a charming person, people just love her. evidenced by her random jobs, one selling phone cards to aborigine people in australia when she ran out of money on one of her world explorations. so when it came to figure out who would i'd like to stand alongside of me this day, and represent the family, it was a no brainer. she's one of my best friends, especially within the family, she's a huge fan of erin & me, and she's woman enough to pull off standing alongside us guys.
to be said: erin says this is a horrible picture, i'd agree, not the best shot i've ever taken. for those asking, what will she wear? she'll be wearing a matching dress to the bridesmaids, but in black. the envy of one of the maids of honor, more on that later.
grooms man, brian "sonny" sondeen. brian is another friend from childhood, he and i grew up in boy scouts together, along with my brother. the three of us were really the only youth our age in scouts and there was this big age gap so we spent about three years rotating all the leadership positions in the troop doing all the camping trips we wanted and making memories then. towards the later half of our high school years brian became more of my circle of friends through skiing and other activities we did. if you see him you should ask about 4wheeling while in a snow storm.. that's a good story.
brian has always remained close as has his wife michelle, they have a cute little guy name evan. when it comes to people staying faithful to others he's gotta be one of the best. i'm not his only friend that he is this way with, he's my info on all the folks we used to hang with at school and into college. he's just one of those endearing persons that everyone is glad to be around. the best thing that i can say that i've done is shawn, tiffany, my dad, and myself drove up to new jersey the weekend after September 11th to see he & michelle get married, that was something i won't forget and well worth the effort to be part of their day. we're excited to have them part of ours.
