Well my Brethren. Your boy is about to do it again tomorrow. After six years of dating, two years of owning a house together and eleven years of friendship we are getting married. A stark contrast from my last trip down this road. The first time I ended a three year Law school relationship for the wrong reasons: Race & Religion. Basically, both of mine were wrong. Apparently a Black Christian was unacceptable to this particular set of Palestinian/Muslim parents. To this day I have nothing but warm feelings and love for that woman but not seeing her for thirteen years has softened the blow considerably. I was determined to be with a black Christian woman and that is what I found about a week after it ended. We dated a month (our first date was at church and we swore the pastor was preaching to us out of Jeremiah: "Build ye houses, take ye wives....") got engaged, then married a year later. I realized three months before hand that it was a mistake but did it anyway (had I any courage at all I would have called it off). The great thing about that marriage is my daughter. I posted here some time ago that it was difficult because of the distance both literally and figuratively, but we have been working on it and she recently spent three weeks with me and we had a great time together. The problem with it is that we built a (figurative) house on a foundation of nothing. We didn't know each other or even ourselves. We dated for that month and then spent the next year planning a wedding in two different states (Mass and NC). So now I turn the page on a new chapter. My wife to be is Haitian and that presents a new set of experiences and personal growth opportunities. For example, after the rehearsal events I spent the past few hours with her father who just arrived from Canada. He speaks French primarily and is able to communicate with me in English. I speak no French, no Haitian Creole and nothing of the other two languages he speaks. Yet he is warm and we have a great relationship and hung out just me and him for two hours (and we enjoyed a bottle of Barbancourt together!) As I mentioned earlier, we are friends and have been for eleven years. We have built a literal home on the foundation of our friendship, relationship and ups and downs. I'm not foolish enough to say I know that this is perfect and will be forever. But I am confident enough to say that we have been planning a marriage for the past six years even when we had no idea that we would still be together. Its been built on trust, friendship, respect and admiration. I'm sharing this because I've been a little distant from the forum, but i can't help but feel like this place is like the dining room table. No matter how long I've been gone I can sit down with my family, break bread, be myself and put my thing down. So if you are near a drink Thursday the 19th of August at about 6:00 pm. Throw one down for your boy, send me some love and a good wish. Your boy, Cage.