Growing up

I am now part of a wedding party for the second wedding in less than two years. The Gabster has finally met someone who is close to worthy of her. Fred was married in May of 05.

I first met the Gabster in 7th grade. She was always the 1st chair flute player. She played sports. She seemed like such a confident person. I could never imagine being that-or that we would be as good of friends as we are now. Lots of years have passed since then. We survived middle school, band trips, drivers ed, high school, her moving away to college then coming back, me dating stupid men, getting pregnant at 19 and lots of other stuff. Even when we weren’t speaking daily, I knew she would always be a friend.

When the Gabster got engaged, it was done perfectly for her. The Brown Guy arranged for a really large chunk of family and friends to meet at the Seattle Center in front of the fountains. He works down there so it was the perfect cover. He told her they needed to pick up the tickets to the fair from his work. She thought nothing of it. All of us-about 30 people-hid in a stairwell and waited for the sign. When they got to the fountain, The Brown Guy ushered us up. The shock on her face was amazing. She had no idea what was going on. He turns to her and sweetly tells her, "I brought all our friends and family here so they can be present when I ask you to spend the rest of your life with me." He gets down on one knee and says, "Will you marry me?" and opens the box to her dream ring. It was a beautiful day and she was so happy-after she got over the fact that they weren't really going to the fair. He promised that there would be lots of years for them to go to the fairs. He has already starting making good on those promises.

Fast forward a year or so, and you have us know. I have been with her to bridal shows, trying on wedding dresses, all the frustration of not finding the right one, FINALLY finding the right one, ordering the dress and so much more. She was with me through a really ugly break-up which led to the beginning of my relationship with Doodle. He was friends with The Brown Guy and has been for 14 years.

Now as we are planning her wedding and talking about our relationships we also talk about the future. The issues that she has with The Brown Guy and all this wedding madness, and the issues I have with Doodle. We talk about kids. My decision that I am having no more. Hers that she is now required to have the girl I didn’t get. As we are talking about all this, both of us can’t help but think, ‘When did we grow up?’ ‘How did this happen?’. It seems like just yesterday we were talking about our stupid band hats and all the cool stuff we could do when we finally got our licenses. Now we are talking about being married and having/not having babies? It’s all so serious. If you would have asked me a year or two ago, I would have said I wanted to go back to when we were kids. Now I don’t really think that is the case. I kinda like this adult thing (shh, don’t tell my mother). I like being responsible, and making decisions for me, and best of all having someone to really stand by me on those decisions. People who choose to love me, not ones who have to. Lucky for me I have that in the Gabster, Fred, and Doodle.