I Get Around on Good Vibrations

I attended a wedding with my dear friend Charlie Hall last weekend.

Charlie is going to be a farmer one day. His cousin has a farm. It is a beautiful place. Let me stress this again. It is a beautiful place.

I often ask Charlie if his cousin will host weddings in his barn. Because that would be beautiful as well.

This wedding was at a garden in Sycamore, Illinois. It was moved inside due to acclimate weather-so it felt a bit more barn-like than garden-like. A rustic wooden building with delicate charm held the very blue grass, hipster, green, attention-to detail wedding.

Eclectic. Relaxed. Vintage. Perfect. Obsessed.  

The groom previously studied abroad in Manchester and had 4 British guests in attendance. They sat at our table and my mind brought me back to my cafeteria and accommodations at Leicester Uni.

Sycamore, UK? Fun Fun Fun.

I couldn’t get over how tiny they were. British men. I tell you. They are small ones.

Is it the genes? Is it the food? Is it both? Is it society’s gender preferences and norms?

I don’t know. But if there had been an open-bar fight, I might have been able to take em.

Charlie drove me back to my roommates (parents) and hung around a bit. Unfortunately for the newlyweds and fortunately for us, the weather turned gorgeous. So we sat on the deck, at sandwiches and talked. I found out that Charlie and the groom bounded in high school over psychedelic beach boys.

His passion for beach boys was unparalleled. And slightly infectious-in that way that you’re more intrigued with the enthusiasm and knowledge one holds for something rather than the thing itself. But I mean, who doesn’t love a little Beach Boys? God only knows.  

Charlie played a song on the Smile album entitled Vega-Tables.

“Sleep a lot eat a lot brush em like crazy,

Run a lot do a lot never be lazy.”

The background soundtrack is Brian Wilson, I presume, eating carrots. 

Snap. Snap. Crunch. Crunch.  

 Brilliant.

Apparently the Smile album was released much later than expected due to band discrepancies and Brian Wilson’s growing mental illness. I mean, even wikipedia follows the subtitle “Smile, group tension and Brother Records” with “Mental illness” and goes on to say “Wilson spent the majority of the following three years in his bedroom sleeping, taking drugs, and overeating.”

But the real question…was he brushing em like crazy?

It’s clear he was not running like crazy. Nor was he never being lazy. Because according to Charlie, he reached 300 plus pounds and allegedly wrote a detailed song giving direction to his house-which gave his home health nurse the added job description of shewing off crazies that showed up at his door.

Yesterday my sister’s future mother-in-law and I bought food for the upcoming bridal shower. We started at the Cosco, Sams Club, superstore kind of places and ended up at Garden Fresh Market. What a good find. This store had good vibrations. Brian Wilson could surely eat a lot of vega-tables with the market’s plethora of produce.

As I unpacked the bridal shower groceries, a song played on the family room TV.

“We’re sooo fresh (so fresh) Sooo fresh (so fresh).”

 It was an advertisement for Jewels’ produce. A northern Illinois grocery store. One that Charlie thought was a jewelry store-possibly triggered by all the wedding talk. And songs.

The animated carrots were singing. It was so fresh.

...Possibly a frightening image for vegetarians.

Is this why Americans are heavier? They have some meat in their produce?

Or, is it proof of Brian Wilson sanity? I mean, they’re both good singers. No wonder he wanted carrots for the background track.

People don’t get hooked on carrots or broccoli.
People get hooked on caffeine and sugary foods.
We are wired all sorts of crazy. Maybe Americans are more susceptible to sugary temptations than the Brits? But I’d like to think, walking down the [grocery] aisle, that Americans prove we can compensate with fluoride, pearly whites.

That we brush like crazy. And [Brian Wilson] present with a 'Smile.'