One of my Dolphin Sisters got engaged over the weekend.
Because of this, I’m a little sentimental today.
You spend your whole life, growing and changing with friends. Or, at least I’ve been very lucky to have a select number of girl friends who’ve been by my side since junior high. They’ve walked next to me during days I was too embarrassed to go to school, too heartbroken to get out of bed, too young to make the right decision, too in love to see straight, too sassy for my own good, too stubborn to say sorry, too self conscious to be myself in a crowd…
My point being—you spend 10 plus years with childhood friends, dreaming of college, boyfriends, careers and families. College came and went. Boys have come and gone. Careers are there and growing. But the day a best friend meets the very right person and commits to a lifetime is always a little surreal. It’s like the 13 single years you’ve spent together—when you’re number one to each other and no one else—flash before your eyes.
And do you know how many memories 13 years hold?
The very foundation of my being—years that formed my personality—are years spent with
Larisa. We met in 7th grade. I was a lost girl who knew two people in a sea of converging elementary schools. When popularity and “being cool” start to count, two people don’t get you very far. But eventually familiar faces and the possibility of friendship begin to emerge from a crowd. And there was Larisa.
We played softball together every day after school during softball season; I snuck home illegally on her bus to rollerblade the
Burke Gilman in the sunshine; we went every winter to Snoqualmie, where we learned how to snowboard while listening to
“Tool,” eventually teaching classes together. We shared the exact same sense of humor and disregard for rules that got us in trouble. A lot. (Voted Biggest Rebel 2000 ) Ha ha. We have so many inside jokes, I couldn’t even being to explain or list them.
In high school, we went to countless dances together. We’d skip school to gamble and get cinnamon bread from Great Harvest Bread Company during second period break. We started our careers at McDonalds, where eventually we were banned from working together cause we got in trouble for having a fight with all-purpose cleaner water bottles in the lobby. We went to
Korn concerts (weird), Limp Bizkit (funny), Pearl Jam, The Gorge, Dave Mathews and countless more shows. We'd play
Doctor Mario after school for no less than four hours, an unhealthy amount of days in a row. We drove around in my 1973 Volkswagen Beetle that was painted to look like a root beer float, yelling, “PERVERT!” to people walking out of
Taboo Video every time we drove by, and stopped to smoke raspberry ciggies on the docks in Kenmore. I lived in her room for a month during senior year, where we’d share clothes and sneak out to bowl at
Kenmore Lanes.
Come college, we went to separate schools, but I’d come home to spend the night in her sorority, and we backpacked through Europe. I’d bring her pineapple and tomato pizzas the summer I came home to deliver pizzas for Papa Johns, and she lived in a fraternity at the U.W.
We’ve been to Mexico together, twice, drinking far too much tequila and dancing in our Mexican sundresses. We've been
Captain Hook and Smee, his first mate--and
Jem and Pizazz, one of The Holograms.
We’ve had terrible arguments, circumstances or relationships that have sometimes put distance between us, but we’ve always come back eventually, always rollerblading together every summer just like the days we were 13.
And then, she became my Dolphin Sister. After drinking a little too much one night, she sent me an e-mail that she didn’t remember until I called her the next day. Something about how she’s glad we’ve been friends for so long, and made it through all our ups and downs. “I think we must have been sisters in our past lives?! I kinda think I was a dolphin, so maybe we were dolphin sisters?,” she wrote. It has been a joke forever since. We buy each other cheap dolphin trinkets and wear dolphin rings on our fingers. (Both on our ring fingers because it’s the only one it fits). As cheesy and silly as it might be, I believe it is our way of reiterating how important our friendship is to one another, and that we really do love each other as a sister.
So, yesterday her Dolphin Sister ring was replaced with a platinum diamond.
But it’s not a replacement for our friendship.
You get to pick your friends. And you get to pick ONE person, to spend the rest of your life with, who becomes a part of the life you’ve shared with all your friends.
I picked Larisa, and she chose me.
And Larisa picked Dave, and he chose her.
And that makes Dave, my Dolphin Brother to-be.
I couldn’t be happier for them. And I can’t wait for another 13 years of friendship with Larisa—AND Dave.
Congratulations!
Currently Feeling: Mucho happy it’s supposed to be in the 70s all week.
Currently Anticipating: Picnicking and rollerblading in Alki tonight with the BF.
Currently Loving: Work dresses! I can’t buy enough!
Told you it'd look spectacular when decorated!
Sue liked a lot of wines; she was covered in stickers!
To make my party complete, it even snowed – a lot. Seattle was covered in a blanket of white as we walked down to the bar to continue the night.
Went on a totally unnecessary payday shopping trip to Nordies where I purchased the most absolutely beautiful grey suede, flat boots that my feet are stuck in. Literally. STUCK. I don’t think I’ll ever get a pair of heels on again.
Most people spend Black Friday shopping for inexpensive Christmas presents for friends and family. I spent it shopping for myself. Tis’ the season. My Black Friday booty includes a charging dock/radio/alarm for my iPod, a prize for the winner at my holiday wine party, a new cheese cutting board and knife, 50 space-saving hangers to continue my Closet Make-Over Mission (this won’t fail like the Underwear Overhaul Mission) camel-colored motorcycle boots, a matching camel-colored belt, two new tops to layer with my boots and a pair of earrings that I TOTALLY needed to add to the other 100 pairs I own. Merry Christmas to me.
