I'm Rick James, bitch. Enjoy yourself. Its A Celebration!



There are days in this crazy thing we call life that are worth forgetting and there are days that you will always want to remember. Friday October 14, 2005 was one of those days. It was a day that 2 of my friends got married.

I have known both of these 2 since Feburary 2005, when I was teaching at Yong-In city. Ben is in the US Army and Carrie is a teacher here in Korea, she is from Canada and Ben is from Florida, USA. (B and C THIS IS MY VERSION, One day I do look forward to telling your children, like the USA tv show on CBS, On how your Dad met your Mother)

This whole story started on my 39th birthday party. Me and Ben went to the Hilton in Seoul to meet Carrie and her friends their because it was "Ladies Night" and they could drink for free. We were trying to set up Ben with another female. It was about half way through and I was thinking, WTF, Why cant it be Ben and Carrie together? She had a BF at the time,(to be honest I don't like the guy but Im nice to him, just something about him always rubbed me the wrong way).

Ben and Carrie had always taled and always seemed to get along so I was hoping that somehow these 2 could connect. Fate then step in.

One night I saw that she was really upset (this is the part I will tell your kids in detail) she made a coment about Ben, "He just really inmature at times" I replied to her, "WHAT THE ONE THING THAT MAKES BOYS TURN INTO MEN AND BE MATURE, ITS THE LOVE OF A STRONG WOMAN, You could be that for him and he will grow up."

I later talked to Ben and said, So what she is 9 years older than you, what if this is the girl and you never took the chance? They soon got together. I told my co-worker at the time, "If Ben does not blow this, He has met his wife"

Me and a friend of his, Hoff, made a bet on when they would get engaged, I picked Dec 24 and he picked 1 Jan.(yes I know its wrong to bet but their was a reason that one day I will tell their children) So when the announcement came in sept that they were getting married. The date was selected for 14 October 2005.

I told Ben that I would get him a bottle of Booze for the wedding, Carrie said that she wanted a bottle, so stupid me said yes! She asked for a bottle of Don Perrion Champagne. Now realize I am a simple boy from Texas, Champagne JUST HAS NEVER BEN IN MY VOCABULARY. I went looking around for this bottle and I could not find one, finally I was in Costco, here in Daejeon, and they had a bottle for 132,000 won. I was like WTF! I made a promise and I get the bottle for her. My co worker was telling me all about the Don and how to drink it and all of that.

I did get him a bottle of Chevas Regal with him and her shot glasses.

It wasnt much of a bachelor party, by the time I got to Seoul, it was about 1030 pm and he was hammered allready. We had one drink and I left the post and checked into my hotel room. Now I had a nice party that night, it was next to a Country music place in iteawon and I stayed up till about 0130 hrs. Now for a strange but true story for that night, it was about 0015 in the moring and somebody decided to play the US national anthem, so I was singing along, at that time is when the MP's came by looking for soldiers past curfew, the look on their faces while were were singing "oh say can you see" was priceless.

I met Ben and Hoff at 0847 by Seoul Station. Carrie and her friend arrived at 0930 and we were off to get these 2 married.

To be honest it wasnt much of a ceremony, they went to an ofice by the US Embassy and filled out some paperwork, once the paperwork was sealed, the told us that they were married. Me,Carrie (differnt girl but same name) and Hoff were all suprised. (Hoff is the one in the cowboy hat, The other Carrie is next to him)

Then we went to the US Embassy, Ben and Carrie went in to get the paperwork stamped, so the rest of us just waited outside. We were talking about what was going on for the rest of the day and it sounded like it would be a fun time. 45 minutes later they emerge, he commented that it took 45 minutes to get a paper stamped.

I gave the bride a little hug and I told her(I told you so) She said how many times will you bring this up, I SAID JUST THIS TIME (and when I tell this story to your kids)

We went to have lunch at Benigans (its sad when I know the Benigans comercials and which Korean comedian stars in them) The girls wantd to do some shopping so the boys went to try and find a bar at 1400 hrs, their were none open, so we went and played pool for a few hours. We then took 2 Taxis to their honeymoon suite (their was 5 of us and I knew that the bride and groom should have the cab to themselves, I wish we could have had gooten them a nice limo ride but there own taxi was the best that we could do.

They stayed at the Ritz Carlton in Seoul, it was a awesome motel, great view. The champagne was then placed into the fridge where it chilled until needed. after that we went bar hopping for a while until 1900 when we caught 2 cabs once agin for the dinner.

I know that I am a Redneck, when we arived at the La Scala Restaurant, I was like, Oh shit, this place was huge and the served a 7 course french meal. Now I have never had this in my life so to say I was a little worried would not be an understatment. The food was good I had the Spagetti meal and I found out that I liked escargo.

What was nice was that the place played instrumental music, a piano player and then classical duet music, I really was feeling out of place their. After the dinner was done I asked ok how much was my cost. Ben said I got this, Carrie then said, No honey we got this" Ben's look on his face was like oh shit, thats right. You are right Honey we got this, I was so happy that he said that, then I was like what do you mean we have this? They both had agreed that they were going to pay for this dinner as their gift to us for being their on this special day.(now I am a grown ass man but damn I felt like crying!)

We then went to a club I think was called UNCLE 29, but we couldn't get in until 2200 hrs. So we went to another club and had one drink, it was time and then we went to the Uncle 29, guess who is their, the Brides ex-bf. I was like oh shit and It went out that he does not know about todays events. So until he left I had one eye on him and one one the party that was going on around me.

I stuck with my favorite beer the whole time their, Coors Light, and what ever shots they wanted to drink. We talked about everything and anything, other people joined us throughout the night and it was great to share the night with them (my camers went to junk at this time so none of the photos turned out) The party ended at 0230 hrs and I took a taxi and went back to my hotel room and crashed and went to bed.

I received a text message that the don was awesome. I told them that it was for them so I hope that it tasted great.

It gave me hope that day, hopefully one day I will fall in love once again.