Last week, one of my closest friends came up to Boulder to visit. She also is one of my bridesmaids. Three years ago, we managed the Tattered Cover together, and the year I stayed on there without her was one of the hardest years working I’ve had. And as I was walking out of the coffee shop where I had snuck a cup in with her after my haircut, I realized that I have three of my best friends standing up with me at the wedding.
Harvey is my adulthood best friend. We met as the two new hires at the Tattered Cover, and became closer as we transitioned to the management team to end all management teams together. After we both left, and I moved to Longmont, we’ve seen less of each other, but that doesn’t change how much I value her friendship.
Ruthie and I went to high school together. She was a sophomore my senior year. I suppose it might be strange for a high school friendship to span a couple of years in school, but that was nature of Interlochen. There was really no division between the classes; any class could host a conglomeration of grade levels. At the time, it didn’t seem strange, but looking back on it through 15 years of high school via popular culture, it is interesting to be in a place that removes the lines between grades and just encourages kids to be kids and artists. Our friendship was cemented over chocolate chip cookies and coffee at the Melody Freeze as well as the ever-so-hard birding tests in ecology. Ruthie made my engagement ring and she’ll be making our wedding bands as well. (Most likely more on the rings in another post; like my lack of an idea on how to design one and what exactly is going into our bands.)
Lex decided I should date his roommate during one of my final semesters in college as he had a girlfriend, but he wanted to hang out with me without making her jealous. The roommate and I went on one date to see Hitch; he was about six inches shorter than me and far more into different things that I didn’t care about like sports or cars or something. We met in a lecture on English Bible as Lit, which was being taught by a pastor’s daughter and everyone in the class was trying to find their way back to God while I was just intrigued by the subject and trying to graduate. The class had one group project and he finagled his way into my group on literature that had been inspired by the Bible; he was looking to do a project on the poetry of Byron, while I swayed the rest of the group to use Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series as the basis of how the Bible still affects our culture. We’ve been mostly inseparable since, despite living in different countries, time zones, and whatnot since I left Western in 2006.
When Ryan and I first started discussing who would stand up for us, his list was long. Longer than I thought mine could ever be. Most of his friends are guys he’s known since late middle school; he’s stood up in their weddings; most of his stories involve them. I felt at a loss before when he counted all the gentleman who would be standing with him. My collection of friends has never been deep; while I had a close group at Interlochen, I’ve only remained close with Ruthie and Lindt. These two often provide my link to the others.
But looking at Harvey (her first name is Sarah, by the way) the other day, I felt happy and grateful that I have three very close friends who sort of mark some serious stages in my life. Ruthie knew my mother. Lex and I met a couple months after she died. And I started hanging out with Harvey soon after I had rearranged my life and moved to Denver.
A soccer team full we are not, but I’m sure we could play some mean euchre.
The rest of the bridal party is rounded out by my sisters. Not to reduce them to a small bit of the entry. But they are truly sisters by every definition:
My real sister, Meaghan, has been my best friend, my worst enemy, and many other things in the 33.3 years she’s been putting up with my existence.
Two weeks after I was born, my god sister, Laura came into the world. I often think that I don’t know the world without her in it and I really wouldn’t want to know.
My first sister-in-law, Rae, married my brother, and while I love him more than anyone can account for, anyone who can put up with him is magical and blessed.
And my second sister-in-law, Lauren, happens to be Ryan’s little sister. She’s the newest one into this crowd, but I’m so happy that she’s part of it.
Okay… Maybe we are a soccer team.
I’m not the goalie.