After the trip to Atlanta for the opening game, and the disappointing loss to the Cocks, I thought better of posting this. After a little more thought, I figure this will either give you some comic relief or piss you off more...if that is possible. I have decided to post it the week before the wedding, so I will only have to read a couple of days worth of abuse and ridicule before we take off for two weeks to the Andes Mountain Range, in Peru, with no internet access.

     Weddings during football season in the South are a travesty. I have always been the one who would call people out for getting married between September and January. The way I saw it, one has from early January through August to trade vows without interfering with college football (that is 7 3/4 months, for the sake of all that is Holy). Certainly, one could find a suitable date in that span of time. In doing so, no college football fans would have to sit through a Saturday wedding wondering what they were missing on the gridiron. This was my adamant, heartfelt stance until my fiance and I started trying to pick a date, last year, for our wedding for this year.

      After dating for two years, and realizing that this was the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, I decided that it was time to pop the question. She has never given me a hard time about staying home on Saturday, or taking a weekend trip to Athens to watch Dawgs football with buddies. This is a woman I have spent essentially every waking moment with since our first date, and she still likes me...even better, she actually loves me. More importantly, I still like her...hell, I am head over heels in love with her. I started saving for a ring and trying to decide when the best time would be to ask her if she would be willing to put up with this South Georgia boy for the rest of her life.

     I had been making an annual pilgrimage to Colorado for several years prior to us dating, to do some hiking and climbing, and took her the first summer we dated. Needless to say, she loved it. We had another trip planned for last summer, so I decided what better place to ask her than Twin Lakes in the Chicago Basin (Southwestern CO), where we would be hiking/climbing. On our way down from our summit attempt of Windom Peak (14,082 ft), we stopped above two beautiful lakes at 12,500 ft to take a break, and I asked her if she would spend the rest of her life with me. Unbelievably, she said yes.

     When we got home from Colorado and started the planning process, picking the date was first on the list. It was mid August and we knew that we were going to have to give her family plenty of notice if we wanted them to be able to make it. Her family is spread out, for the most part, from Georgia, to Hawaii, to Palau (a string of islands in the Pacific. South of Guam). We also knew that we wanted to go to Peru to do some hiking through the Andes, and visit Machu Picchu for our honeymoon. Due to the rainy season there, we knew we would have from April until October to plan the honeymoon. Also factored in was that she really wanted to get married on the beach. The spring did not give family enough time to plan the trek from the Pacific Islands, and midsummer was out of the question, with the heat (In case you don't know, the beach in Southeast Georgia during the summer is hotter than seven hells with humidity off the charts), so we started to look at early fall. This is when I realized that I was about to commit the ultimate crime.

     As we started to discuss the fall, I pulled up the UGA football schedule. My fiance looked at me like I was crazy. I told her that if we were going to do this, we needed to do it as painlessly as possible for the guests we would be inviting. She shook her head and laughed and told me to pick a date. I have to say that this is typical of her selflessness when it comes to College Football Season. I think secretly she enjoys watching me turn into a kid on those select Saturday mornings. The obvious choice would be the open date before the WLOCP, but his would push us too close to the rainy season, and who wants to hike in the rain for their honeymoon? This would also put us in the middle of nowhere for the WLOCP with no way to see the game. That is just unacceptable. We probably won't win it, but I have to watch the train wreck that it is sure to be. The next choice was week three against Coastal Carolina. Not only should this game be a gimme (I say this with a slight hesitation), but there was no way in hell it would be a televised night game (6:30 pm wedding, and as of now, game time is 1:00 pm). We will miss the Ole Miss game, but will be back home just in time to see the Miss ST. game. I know the next argument. There are other games on TV besides the Georgia game. This is why there will be a TV in the bar next to the room where the reception is being held. I will hold no ill will for anyone over there watching football during the reception (hell, I might even join them for a few minutes if I can sneak away). We are now less than a week from the wedding, and I have not received any complaints or threats from our football fan friends that we invited. Everyone who matters has accepted the invite and is coming. Of course, this does not mean that my buddies would have any qualms with abusing me in person, once they get here.

     This post is all an attempt to make myself feel better for committing as big of a foul against fellow college football fans as Auburn paying Cam Newton is to the NCAA (I say this with the full confidence this will be proven to be fact). I am now humbly asking for forgiveness from the college football nation and anyone who is invited to our wedding that groaned, bitched, or cussed me when the invitation showed up in the mail.

Please feel free to chastise me at will. I deserve it......hell, it might even be cathartic.

With all that being said, I better not get an invitation to a wedding for next fall.

GO DAWGS!

/hangsheadandslinksawaytostandinthecornerandberidiculed

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