Wedding Speech

Twice in the last few weeks the story of my wedding speech has come up. Many of you already know this story but for those of you who don't.....
It was the night before our wedding. It was a dinner. Matt and I had dated for such a short time that many people on his side of the family were meeting me for the first time. After a nice dinner, Spencer (Matt's dad) stood up and introduced everyone on Matt's side of the family and said some cool things about Matt. Example: Matt was the youngest kid (5 years old) to hike into Havasupai with his own back pack. Then my Dad stood up and introduced all of us. Then people started chanting "speech, speech, speech." So Matt stood up and thanked everyone for coming and then said some nice things about me and how much he loved me. I was feeling good and smiling. Then they started saying "speech, speech, speech" again. I was not expecting this at all. Matt had said everything I would have said. I stood up behind Matt's chair (he was now sitting in it) and I couldn't think of anything to say. I was completely blank. I started scratching Matt's head with my new acrylic nails. Later Matt told me I kept sticking my fingernails in side his ears. I was still drawing a blank and laughing. Everyone kind of laughed along, thinking I was too emotional to speak. Not so. I was still blank. My mom tried to help out saying "This is the first time we've ever seen her speechless. ha ha ha." I was still blank. Matt is now squirming under my absent minded scratching. I felt the awkward tension rising. I started to get all hot. I thought I might faint. In retrospect that would have been better. Then like a beam of light shinning out of the darkness this memory comes calling out to me. I have no idea how my mind caught hold of this memory. Now let me explain this memory before I proceed.

A couple of weeks before, we had been visiting Gabby and Ben Blaire and Ben had said that in class whenever anybody said "This might sound kinda funny, but... I like ketchup on my ice cream (or something else out of the ordinary), he would like to say "This might sound kinda funny but... cheekita wakeiths blrrrrrritait bludmperding idnaot". (that means make really funny noises). I thought this was so funny when Ben said it. Back to my story. This memory came into my head, shining with hope and glory after a long, cold, dark lapse. I said "This might sound kinda funny but.... cheekita chikeatouena digho erludder ding" and then started laughing again. A few people courtesy laughed. The tension grew. I said "I love Matt and I'm glad he puts up with me" or something along those lines. And sat down. Later I watched the home video (tears streaming down my face thinking don't do it, don't do it). After I had said it you can hear someone say "Was that Chinese? Does she speak Chinese?" Oh how I wish it were Chinese and i was saying something as simple as "Thank you all for coming. I love Matt." I could not talk about this incident for about 3 years after it happened without getting nauseous and a little teary. But now I can laugh about it. Every time I have to speak in church I tell Matt that if I get a blank look and start to say "This might sound funny...." , just take me out! Tackle me if you have to, but don't let me do it ever again!