Best Friends and Home Videos...

My best friend Dani and I go back a long, long, long way. I’ve known this amazing woman for 20 years now. For the record, I’m 24 years old. That makes her my longest known best friend, and I could not imagine another I would rather have in the position. We don’t talk nearly as much as we should, but when we do it’s as though absolutely no time has passed and we’re just catching up on yesterday’s news. We share a sense of humor, remember (most of) our secret handshake and will always have a friend in one another. That’s longevity, my friends.

Pretty Pretty Princess: Rise of the Goth

Take a walk with me, dear reader, down memory lane. When I was a young and innocent gayling, I would frequently find myself over at my neighbor and best friend Dani’s house for some ridiculous shenanigans or other. Together with our other neighbor Liz, we wrote short plays, built a club house, founded the Animal Savers Club, played steam roller in the front yard, attempted cartwheels, had underwater adventures in our pools, rocked out Halloween parties and made home movies…we knew how to live. Occasionally we would break out one childhood board game or other. Operation. Mousetrap (if only to set off the intricate trap and put it away). Loopin’ Louie. Once or twice there was even a game most remember but refuse to admit to remembering: Pretty Pretty Princess.

The most beautiful bride...

About a year ago, one of my dearest and best friends sat across the table from me at Olive Garden. We hadn’t seen one another in quite some time, and now that I was back in town on a visit from college, soup salad and breadsticks were in the highest of order. She has always been beautiful, my dear friend since the second grade, but there was something extra in her smile that day. As if no more than a day had passed since our last lunch, we spent the first 30 minutes of our meal smiling, laughing, sharing our inside jokes and commencing with all other forms of catching up.

We had been set at a table with a decent amount of sunlight filtering in through the window. It was not until the initial excitement of our reunion died down that I noticed a twinkle coming from Lauren’s side of the table. That’s funny, I thought. It looks like she got a new ring. Its very pretty. Looks like a decent amount of diamondage, too. And on her left ring finger…