my brother's call

ever since the summer i knew my brother wasn't going to be able to attend the wedding. it was a very unfortunate thing that i was really bummed about, but thats what happens when you've got a brother in the military. since he wasn't going to be able to be a part of the celebration, i knew i would at least be able to talk to him the weekend of the wedding on the phone, and i eagerly awaited his call!

now, here's the thing: at&t sucks. at&t sucks big time. i've known this for a while, my phone has terrible reception. i can't hold a phone call for more than a couple minutes inside my house because their reception is so bad, and recently my phone has decided not to ring at all sometimes when people call- it will just let me know that this phantom caller left a message. this happened twice when chad called. once it beeped that i had a message without ringing when he actually called, and the other time it rang once, then straight to voice mail. this did not please me, it did not please me one bit. typically i am a fairly even tempered man, slow to anger. but this? this i could not handle. both times when i got his message saying 'well, i guess you are busy...' i flew off into a rage here to for unseen! my wrath burned with the fire of a thousand suns (just ask jeffry lee, he happened to be there for it and was genuinely frightened!) i screamed and yelled and brought down curses the likes of which had never been heard before, and at&t was the recipient of that hateful wrath. after the second missed call i finally changed my incoming message to 'please leave a message. if this is chad, please call me back! my phone has not been ringing when you called, so please try again. if i still don't answer, call diana's phone!'.

anyway, i've made peace with my phone (i will be leaving at&t the very moment my contract is up. curses be upon their heads), and on the way to the rehearsal dinner the phone finally rang!!! i got to talk to chad and share with him all the great stuff that was going on. he even surprised diana and i with a wedding gift: he informed us that his wedding gift to us would be two plane tickets to come and visit him in japan!!! wow!!! diana and i were both blown away by his generosity! i've always wanted to go to japan, and diana has always wanted to travel more (our honeymoon was the first time she had ever left the country). i was so overcome with excitement at getting to talk to chad and then to hear what he was getting us for a wedding gift that i'm sure i didn't make much sense while i was talking to him... we got to talk for about twenty minutes. it wasn't as good as having him there with us, but it was really great to connect with him during this exciting weekend!