It is days like this, and the kind of mood I have been in since late last night, that gave rise to the �Malcontent� tag and the whole �Ambiguously Disgruntled� concept. I have been in a sour, just-slightly-off-my-game kind of mind set all day, and there is no real good reason for it. I can just be a joyless, dour son of a bitch sometimes, and often my foul mood is somewhat inexplicable.

But I should say something nice, and positive, and generally comment on the big Event of yesterday, which saw Cousin Andy get married to the lovely and charming Jody. But it turns out this may be the seed of my discontent. This story starts Friday night.

Greg, Rich and I, after hefty workouts, decided to head out for some beer at the Elysian brewery. I ended up driving, and decided this was worth a free beer. Greg and Rich agreed, since neither of them wanted to drive. My parallel parking prowess won me another free beer (thanks to Rich�s big mouth) and with my planned two beers comped, things were good in Jake Land.

The Elysian has some of the best beer around, and Greg and I were pleased to see they had the Valkyrie Strong Ale, one of our favorites. I also had their Pumpkin Spice beer, which was pretty damn good as well. So things were Really good in Jake Land.

Once back at the house, I decided to watch �Robbery Homicide Division,� which I had taped earlier, and had not yet caught an episode of. It was okay�. I guess. During this, I had a couple more beers, so I went to bed at about 2 am feeling pretty buzzed.

Greg woke up at about 8 the next morning, and when he turned on the TV right outside my room it woke me up. I didn�t really think it was that big a deal, assuming I�d fall right back asleep, but that wasn�t forthcoming. Then Greg started playing his computer game, with his sub-woofer reverberating the blasting sounds through the wall. I sort of dozed on and off for a while, but my effective sleep was over, and I finally got out of bed not feeling very well rested.

Rich and Greg started tidying up the house for Jason�s bachelor party later in the day, which I was going to miss, and I just generally tried to stay out of the way while slowly getting ready to leave at about 11:30 to head to the �rents house.

Sister Jill (the pregnant Sister Jill) had flown in Friday, and the �rents, Jill and I were going to head down to Aunt Jan�s house in Gig Harbor for lunch for a belated b-day celebration for her and my dad. After that, we were going to head straight for Centralia and the Andy-Jody wedding.

The problem was that I just felt sluggish, tired, and generally uninspired. It was almost surely the result of having a lot of beer and waking up prematurely, but I have pushed through that plenty of times with coffee. That wasn�t working this time.

After hanging out at Jan�s for a bit, we headed for Centralia, and were running a bit early, so I made a push to stop for some coffee. The �rents and Jill assented, and we got espresso drinks at a weird Dutch-themed coffee house and headed over to the Lewis and Clark Hotel, in old-town Centralia, for the ceremony/reception.

Of course, I still felt sluggish and generally off my game, but now I was getting perturbed. This was Andy�s wedding, for fuck�s sake, and promised to be a great party, and I just Couldn�t get into it.

So, I should say some positive things here, because it Was a good ceremony and reception, and my disgruntled, pissy outlook doesn�t change that. It was quite non-traditional, particularly in the musical selection, and I can�t help but wonder what some of the more �conservative� family members thought about the Unitarian delivery. There were no attendants, and it was a great change of pace from the usual lavish, over-the-top shows most weddings end up being.

The reception featured lots of beer, which is very important, and a buffet with vegetarian lasagna and salmon. The Dunkelweizen I made went over pretty well, which made me happy. A bunch of us got up to make some comments after eating, and I made a general jackass out myself, which is great. My immense ability to get up and say something stupid has not diminished one bit. In another great twist, they had pie instead of cake, and we all know pie is superior in all ways. Who doesn�t like pie?!

But, again, I didn�t feel like I was into the swing of things yet. I kept drinking beer, and mingled a bit, chatting it up with various relatives, but still felt a bit like I�d rather go and hide.

Most receptions reach a point where, after all the �traditional� crap (toasts, bouquet/garter toss, first dance, yada yada) and most of the �lame� people start going home, that the party really begins. I was starting to get into it. The beer was working, the crowd was thinning out, and I sensed the �party� was getting going. Then I was informed that we (the �rents, Sister Jill) were leaving soon.

Damn.

Damn!

Shit!!!!

I can hardly blame them. The �rents are old (and lame� but I mean that in the best possible way, they just aren�t into the party thing) and Jill is pregnant. I mean, like, sure, she�s gonna party it up, ya know.

So I delayed them as much as possible. I Really didn�t want to go, things were Just Getting Good.

But, after saying my goodbyes, and assuring Andy and Jody that it just killed me I had to leave, we left. I rode back to the �rents house, hung out there and had a snack and bullshat for a bit, then headed home� to an empty house� because Greg and Rich were out for Jason�s bachelor party�

And I forgot to grab/didn�t know about the CD�s Andy/Jody were giving out at the reception, and for whatever reason that really just stuck in my craw really good. It was like the icing on the cake.

So I sat around and got depressed at home, drank another beer, and passed out� feeling depressed.

I am just a dour and pissy SOB, what can I say.

So I got up this morning in a mood, watched some football, and headed off to my soccer game. I just joined up with a team that was looking to fill out there roster, and was feeling pretty positive about it. But we had only 8 guys show up.

So that didn�t make me feel any better.

But Tyler and Angie were around, and we went out to Green Lake and tossed the aerobie around a bit, so that was good. And it was a really nice day.

I should just pull my head out of my ass.