Weddings and Childhood Friends

One of my first friends ever, Miss Flip Flops, got married this weekend. It's the end of an era. I imagine that she won't be coming out to stay with me for a random weekend nor be able to travel with me anymore. At least not till 2008, she told me. IF they don't have kids.

I DO know however, I will always be able to stay at her place in Phoenix, always be able to stuff ourselves silly with good food, and that she'll always be one of the first people to offer to run over and beat anyone who hurts me.

Our birthdays are a day apart and yet we've only celebrated together once. We became friends when I was about 5 and she was 7 though it turned out we lived in the same neighborhoods as babies. We were each other's first pen pals (remember when people wrote handwritten letters to each other?) when I moved away at age 8 and stayed in touch to this day - me going back for the summers to visit my grandparents, and she driving out here as soon as she got a car and a license.

The wedding and preparations reflected the low key nature and down to earth personality of Miss Flip Flops. The night before the wedding, we busted open her new Bissell Spot bot to try it out on the carpet, (thanks to her excitable dog) and proceeded to hook up her Tivo.

The day of her wedding, her mom came over and fried dumplings and eggs for us, while I ran out to get coffee for everybody, bought more cables for the Tivo, and finished setting up the DVR so that she wouldn't miss her shows while on her honeymoon. I even had to call the Tivo customer support line at one point, explaining that I NEEDED to do this for my friend, she's getting married today, and it's my gift to her! The guy laughed and luckily was able to talk me through it



The wedding took place at a golf course, far far away from central Phoenix. The Arizonians joked that we were halfway to Los Angeles, it was that far west. At one point, we worried that some errant golfer could knock the bride unconscious with a golf ball and a shout of "Fore!" during the ceremony. She really would have that kind of luck. That's why we're such kindred spirits.



Other than the gigantic bug bites I came back with and the fact that the DJ had the bright idea to make each table sing a song with the word "love" in it in order to line up at the buffet, the wedding was lovely, filled with old childhood friends, family (including mine), and more kiddies than ever. For the first time, I felt neither young nor old, as I sat out from the festivities from aching feet, watching three different generations on the fance floor. I thought of how we used to be the kiddies laughing and dancing on the floor, while our parents and grandparents watched, waiting for us to grow up while hoping time would stand still.