Tired. Tired tired tired.

I think everyone should meet my family. I understand intellectually that other families are probably just as quirky and idiosyncratic as mine, but it's kind of hard for me to imagine that being true. On our first night in Keystone, as we were all being introduced, someone from the bride's family wondered aloud why all of us seemed to have recycled Irish Catholic names, and I couldn't think of any answer except, "Pride, in defiance of all reason." I don't think any of us could tell you why we like being Dolans so much; but it's definitely a big deal.

Fortunately, Justine (my cousin's new bride) is just as weird about the Irish thing as he is, so the wedding was tinged with old pagan Celtic accoutrements. The reception tables were named for Celtic fire festivals--and there were like eight of them, which seemed like an awful lot to me. Apparently our people have always been pyromaniacs. My uncle Patrick, who is a priest in Denver, performed the ceremony with a mix of very mild Catholicism, pre-Christian Celtic wedding blessings, and stand-up comedy.

I was a little kid the last time I'd seen the groom, and in the intervening years all I'd heard about him was my uncles' hazy and embellished stories of his adventures in DEVGRU (the erstwhile Seal Team Six), breaking necks and "playing with toys we won't see for fifteen years". He'll ship out for his tenth tour of duty in Afghanistan later this year. So naturally I was expecting him to be at least eight feet tall and engulfed in flames when I met him. Turns out he's like 5' 9", and he doesn't look much more crazy or dangerous than anybody else in our family. In fact, he didn't look nearly as imposing as Justine's father and brothers (who came to the wedding in their Marine dress blues), but there must have been twenty medals hanging from his jacket. When we were all together, he told us he does "radio work", but it was more a joke than a cover.

After the wedding we all got together with our guitars in the hotel lobby and my dad and my uncles played Irish drinking songs--not that any of them drink anymore, but Irish music is drinking music by default, as far as I can tell.

There have been a lot of good stories this weekend, but I need a nap.

--Kevin