1. Persona non grata
2. How little do you know me after all these years?
3. A question of perspective
4. The people who weren't allowed to attend the ceremony in the temple
5. You can't choose your family

• (character chart)

1. Young Women's
2. Youth Conference
3. Saturday's Warrior
4. Brigham Young University
• Gratuitous Love Scene
5. Polygamist
6. Temple Wedding
7. Orem High
8. Bordeaux Mission
9. Exmo Conference

The interesting thing was that this trip through the receiving line would be my first opportunity to meet Annette's new husband Matt. When our turn came around, I introduced myself to him, and I introduced him to Rex. Unsurprisingly, Matt seemed to be on cloud nine, so he greeted us in a friendly manner, but I didn't get the impression that he was paying too close of attention to us.

It turned out that Matt was a big, stocky guy, just slightly shorter than Rex. However, comparing muscular Matt to mathematician Rex, I was struck by how funny it was that I had imagined Rex to be muscular. He was perhaps muscular compared to me, but seeing him alongside Matt it was clear that despite his broad-shouldered frame Rex was exceptionally thin.

When I got my turn to talk to Annette, I gave her a kiss on the cheek and congratulated her.

"Annette, I'm really impressed with the way you stood up to your mother-in-law like that," I said. "I could never do that with Rex's mom, she scares me. Of course Rex's mom is a total psycho."

Rex laughed. "No offense Rex," I said, "but your mom's a psycho."

He smiled and said "So's yours."

"I'm lucky," said Annette. "Matt's mom keeps really strict LDS standards for herself, but when it comes down to it, she's pretty tolerant of other people doing things differently."

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"That's great for you," I said. "It's wonderful to be able to get along with your new family."

After that brief exchange we of course had to move along so that others would have the opportunity to congratulate the newlyweds.

Once we had finished with the receiving line, we took up a place on the sidelines to observe the room. My bachelor uncle Adam was going all around the room taking photos of everyone. My little cousins Jennifer and Emily appeared to be still following and observing Joe and Sam from a distance and giggling. Mom and Richard were going around "witnessing" to various people from Matt's ward who were politely declining their pamphlets and brochures.

"God, they're so annoying, they drive me up the freaking wall!" I said to Rex. "I mean, I can kind of understand people who say that whenever evidence contradicts the scriptures it's the evidence that is wrong. That's wacky, but at least it's consistent. On the other end of the spectrum, I can perfectly relate to those Christians that say that the Bible is not to be taken literally. That's reasonable. But this idea that the Bible and the real world evidence are in sync -- well, that's just demonstrably false."

Rex laughed. "I know, but what can you do? You can't choose your parents."

In the late afternoon the open house wound down, and we began to realize that we hadn't really had any lunch, and that cookies weren't sufficient sustenance. The reception hadn't been planned as an affair that included a meal, but the out-of-town relatives who would be participating in the clean-up would need to be fed. Fortunately, somebody wisely ordered a big stack of pizzas, and we all ate them as we put things away.

When we had finished our pizza and had finished cleaning up, Rex put his arm around me affectionately and suggested that perhaps we might turn in early. I was in agreement with this plan, so we got in the car and went back to our hotel room.

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