I went to a wedding recently. My niece married this large Italian gentleman who seemed friendly enough, although I sensed he was bored and uncomfortable with the formality of it all. Maybe he was just really tired. Weddings are tiring after all. My niece has always been nice to me even though my brother doesn't think I deserve it. I've made mistakes in life. So has he, so he needs to get over himself. Anyway, that's not the point.



We were invited to the rehersal dinner. It was nice but a tad long winded as these things are prone to be. It's hard to tell which of the speeches were BS of course, but it was nice that people made an effort to make the evening nice for the bride and groom. I'm sorry, but cynicism goes with my age, as do GERD and hemorrhoids.



The pre-wedding rehersal dinner is one of those traditions that continues to hang on dspite the fact that most of todays newlyweds have been living together for some time. Now I'm sort of a fossil in this wedding thing because I've been married more years than most of these kids have been alive, but when I was young, people didn't live together until after they'd been married and the point of all the wedding partying was about giving them a great sendoff. Nobody has been able to convince me that premarital cohabitation has done anything to reduce the divorce or abuse rates. If anything, both are worse than ever. There I go running at the mouth again.



Anyway Jose, I was stunned to find out that my niece had met this man at an online dating site. I didn't realize these services had reached such a level of legitimacy that people were actually finding people they wanted to marry at these things. We learn something new every day.



When you think of it, it makes all the sense in the world I guess. Call it a pre-relationship exam where if you pass the test you get laid. My wife says I'm crude, but I think it's the point. Oh sorry ... I guess the point is to develop a warm, fulfilling, and fruitful relationship with your soulmate. Then you get laid.



Anyway, a membership in one of these organizations makes more sense than a bar tab at Le PouPou Disco Emporium where the girls get prettier as the tab grows. We did it the old fashioned way years ago and most of the marriages lasted longer than today's, although I have to admit that this Internet dating thing looks like it could be fun. They really looked happy. But let's face it, they're still at the really horny stage of life. My wife just told me I've said enough now.



I know ... who cares how we did it years ago when text messaging was called writing a letter. God help me, I got a generation gap going here and my PSA is at 5. Where's my ring. The one for the chair.