I had the honor of officiating a wedding for two of my best friends, the newly minted Melanie and Lucas DeAngelo. I think it went great, I spent a lot of time practicing and making sure what I was saying would be relatable to both them and the crowd, and my 25th draft ended up being the one that I deemed good enough for the day.

I love public speaking and giving speeches because it’s where I feel the most like me. Not because there are eyes on me, but because I often think in those moments you can let your friends know how you really feel. You don’t get the opportunity to go deep with friends other than a casual I love you, which you should say to your friends every time you see them by the way. I love being able to weave stories in and out and connect them at the end. I think it provides a way to really show people who are important to you how much you really care, and how much you appreciate their friendship. If you are reading this and asked to officiate a wedding, I’d be happy to share my script and work with you if you’d like some help.

The Wedding was spectacular. Melanie’s visions for the night were made and I love when a wedding really matches the vibe of the couple getting married. They did so many things right, and it’s truly a testament to the Bride when a wedding is as fantastic as this one was.

I’m very fortunate to have a fantastic group of friends, we see each other less and less now that everyone is a little spread out, but there is magic when everyone gets together. A wedding in our friends group feels like a celebration of our group, and everyone really did a great job of harboring that feeling. At my wedding I had an element of that but was too stressed about making sure everything went well and too full of adrenaline to look around in the moment and have that “Holy Shit” moment. This was the first wedding in our group after ours, I had the time of my life, and reignited my appreciation for my friends that I hold so dear in my heart.

I also didn’t realize how stressed out I was about officiating the wedding until I was done. I hadn’t had more than one or two beers since we had the baby, and let’s just say they were going down real nice.

I woke up at 4:45 with a 28-year old’s hangover and a baby who looked at me like “Who the hell do you think you are?” That’s a new challenge for hangovers, but Body Armour, Tylenol, and an hour Sauna session brought me back to life. I still got it.

My shoulder felt like it had fallen off my body, and I had no idea why. I went through videos and realized I had carried the groom for the entirety of Mr. Brightside and that certainly checked out with the soreness I was dealing with. But the kid’s still got it.

Before we dig in, at RoadMap we are launching our software on Shopify to help stores better forecast their sales and inventories. I would love to connect if any of you have experience with Shopify and could show me the ropes, and happy to give you a tour of TrailBlazer if you’re interested!

I’d be lying if I said I watched a lot of sports last week. The Playoffs just don’t have the bite for me. Even the Celtics I’ve watched but they are going to win this round and the next it’s hard to get entrenched.

I did watch the entirety of the Chevron final round, and oh my god was that playoff painful. So many missed putts, the leader duffed a chip on 18. Absolute Chaos and a first time major winner. Lot of of fun to watch

I missed this last week, but I want to shout out my guy JT for getting the W at Harbortown. He has played such good golf recently and it was great to see him finally end his 3 year drought in the winner’s circle. What a stud and an easy guy to root for.

McShay has found a great spot at the Ringer, and after being in the blur of a wedding weekend, this was a great Draft Recap to hear about each teams picks and learn a little bit about how everything went down.

My Draft Thoughts

There is no bigger Buzzkill than your team taking a Guard in the 1st round. Now, it doesn’t happen often and the Cowboys last 3 1st Round Guards have all been Hall of Fame Quality Players. Tyler Booker will be great, but man a shiny new toy would’ve been fun.

I made my friends stay at the bar we were killing time at before the wedding to wait for the Cowboys 5th round pick, begging for a Running Back, they got one in Texas’ Jaydon Blue, who I hit a 2TD prop on in the Playoff last year so I was pretty jacked.

I’ve had a lot of Patriots fans ask me about Treyveyon Henderson. If he’s healthy and they give him the ball he will be a top 5 NFL Running back very soon. He is so fast, so strong, and such a good dude. If he wore a Single Digit jersey number in college he would’ve been a Heisman Candidate multiple years. The 32 just looked slow. If he was #2 or #7 he would’ve looked like an absolute rocket on some of those long TDs.

I’m glad the Commanders had a dud draft. They are due for a course correction and will no longer get taken lightly. I’m pumped for them and my friends in Maryland and VA that there will be a new stadium soon, because Fedex was such a dump. We used to go to the Cowboys game every year when we lived down there and it was always such a shithole, even 20 years ago.

Not a show, but a great 2 hour Youtube video. Josh Allen is the man, I’d love to have him on my team. He is so funny, laid back, and actually a pretty good stick on the course. Rahm was great at busting Phil’s chops and you can tell they have a special relationship. Fun background watch this week.

One last wedding note. Melanie and Lucas CRUSHED the playlist. Sometimes you gotta throw fastballs. Ocean Avenue, Mr. Brightside, What’s My Age Again, My Own Worst Enemy. I want to walk out of a wedding unable to talk because I was singing too hard. Mission Accomplished Lucas and Melanie.

This is more of a personal one, but with the Cowboys taking a Guard in round 1, I was thinking a lot about maybe the Greatest Cowboy Lineman of all time, Larry Allen. What a Monster. RIP Legend

Til Next Week

TT