California Dreaming, part 7262013

One of the big surprises for me, here in sunny SoCal, was the big churchy aspect.  I encountered nothing like this in the South, and they have churches everywhere, but they are often smaller, some the size of a small barn or taco stand.

San Diego county houses maybe a billion Mormons, and big showings for Seventh Day Adventists and some Caledonian thing--they be somewhat foreign--and who knows what other group that would probably piss off the Baptists down south.

I played a little music with a Mormon guy over the last couple of years.  I even played for a Mormon event at a Mormon church--or whatever term they use, if not church.

So, that guy was marrying the girl singer, also a Mormon.  Mormonette, if you will.  You won't?  Yea, guess not.

Apparently they do the church stuff and actually get married the night before.  That is what they did.  Then they have like a reception-party thing the next night.  At a mormon place.   All their places have a very nice indoor basketball court, which also serves as a banquet hall, dance hall, etc., as needs be.  At the end of all of them is a first class stage, complete with curtain.

So, I was invited to the reception, as was the bass player who had played with us.  He gave up on that group at same time I did.  We figured we were the only non-mormon infidels in the place.  We were concerned about the possibility of a sacrificial ceremony.  We were concerned that we might be the martyrs of the event.

As it turned out we sat around with a Mormon lady that we know, sampled the buffet, sat around some more.  The invitation said it started at 6:30, then at 8 there was to be a ring exchange---I thought you did that when you got married.

It doesn't matter.  They never showed up.  Family and friends had that place looking like a mild Las Vegas.  Lights, glitz.  Nothing.

People sat around the tables and talked because they all know one another.  Some recorded music was being played.  Actually a good selection for what was at hand.

Everyone appeared to believe that the newlywed couple--marriage 2 or 3 for him, 2 for her--was still alive and hadn't fallen into a well, as I posited.

At nearly 8pm, the guy playing dj, announced the couple's phone numbers and suggested barraging them with calls and texts.  I didn't hear if any answers were received.

I left at close to 830.  Not to show to your own party is a bit odd.  He was going to play music and wanted the bass and I to play, was my understanding.  The erratic degree of reliability involved with the couple, particularly the groom,  has those people conditioned to assume it is due to irresponsibility so I'll bet it will be some time before family church people start looking at wells to see if they fell in.

If they find this couple in a well, I'll tell them 'I told you so'.   Every encounter I've had with this guy and his world has left me wondering how reality works in that dimension.  Nothing ever makes sense, and it is never quite a represented, but then the representation rarely makes sense either.  Not showing up to something they know family and friends worked very hard to set up has to be for good reason.

Maybe they know something I don't.  Maybe I'll find out tomorrow that they were abducted by aliens, or sent to gitmo to make us safe.

Whatever the case, I think 2 hours is a large enough window of time to allow for ADD, lack of awareness, and the need to be fashionably late.  This guy is overly absent minded and quick to shift his attention in an almost randomly chaotic fashion.  So, he could easily be walking along looking at something shiny, over there, and fall into a hole, or well, dragging his new wife along.

A mystery to be solved, though I think the truth is that they just showed up late for some complicated reason that would only happen to them.  That is the MO.  Just not sure.