To Hug, Kiss and Love

Psychologists say if you have a friend for seven years, she will be a friend for life.

I've had a friend for 28 years; since Pre-Kindergarten. What would a psychologist say about that? I'm guessing that we will still be calling each other besties as we compare food rations and Bingo games in our nursing home of choice at the end of time.

While I hate qualifying friends with a good, better or best status, I do like labeling some as legendary. And Rebecca is just that. A famous piece of fabric in not only my life - but in so many others.

Legend has it that she was born in the back seat of a car; she came out blue, but with the help of her Dad, took her first breath of air. She arrived in my life though when we entered Mrs. Stephen's classroom for the first time. We shared a love of peanut butter and jelly, Mrs. Chitman's ballet class, and Eric, the cutest four-year old in our class. Several years later, we shared hymnals, maroon blazers, Grandparents and Special Friends Days, Turkey Bowls, dulcimers, school plays, gym uniforms, crushes, and crashes.

My fear of dogs, in particular Doberman Pinschers, came from her. The ironically named Princess was Rebecca's canine compatriot growing up. Princess ate out of the garbage, bit Caroline Potter, and was my worst nightmare. I had to barter before play dates: at the same time I would ring the doorbell at her house, I would hear Rebecca yell, 'quick, put Princess outside.'  

Rebecca was host to more sleepovers than a Hilton Hotel. From second grade on her house on Maple Ave was THE party house. By 1:00 AM there would be girls, zipped up in sleeping bags, covering every square inch of her house. There were more fluid rules at her house too; there was parental guidance so we got to watch Dirty Dancing, jump on trampolines without spotters, sit on the roof, and drink champagne after Prom.

Rebecca saved me from more awkward moments in life by being as candid as possible. I covered up pimples, got cheese crackers out of my braces, fixed my hair, chewed pieces of gum, and changed ill fitting outfits with Rebecca's coaxing. And while my self-confidence was always rattled for a minute or two, I walked away looking better than ever.

Ardmore Roller Rink never had a better skater; Trees Hall never had a more elegant swimmer. Longue Vue never had a more glamorous golfer; Shadyside never had a more determined power walker. Life never had a more hopeless romantic, aggressive cuddler, or endless believer in the kind of love that lasts throughout the ages. And I never had a more loyal friend. 

This weekend, Rebecca, my legendary 28-year partner in crime, got her fairy tale ending as she joined her better half in marriage. She vowed to hug him.
Kiss him.
And love him all the days of her life.

And Tom, as her lifelong friend, I can tell you that when she makes a promise, she never breaks it.

Congrats Tom and Rebecca! I love you both so much.

Lo.  

Also ... Mary went to the pool this weekend. And the photos were pretty cute. So by the power vested in me, I'm annexing her to this blog post. 

Mash Up

16 years ago, when we weren’t pranking the Latin students or Mr. Walker's algebra class; when we weren’t reciting speeches for Mr. Altman on stage, writing papers for Dr. Free, or escaping to Egypt via Dr. Bedell; when we weren’t protecting our belongings from the class kleptomaniac, cleaning the clay out of our nails, or alerting Dr. Vassar that she had the in case of emergency number wrong (with all due respect, I believe it’s 9-1-1 not 9-9-1); you could probably find Nicole and I on a school heater, warming our kilted bottoms from the cold winter weather and tearing out a clean sheet of paper to craft yet another MASH grid.

For those that are unfamiliar, MASH is a girly, horoscope game. The respondent get three inputs for each category ranging from the name of your spouse to the place you will live to the number of children you will rear. The questioner and person filling out your MASH card gets the fourth input. After you've filled in all of your answers, a rudimentary algorithm determines which choices will define your future.

I don't know if it was version 521 or 630, whether it was freshman or junior year, but there was one MASH game that was pretty accurate in predicting Nicole's future.

She went to CMU.
She became a doctor.
She lived in an apartment in Boston.
She got married in Pittsburgh - Heinz Chapel to be exact; honeymooned in Africa.
She wore a white dress.
His tux was black.
The cake was a couple layers of burnt almond torte.
Nailed it.

Well almost. The only problem is that our little oracle indicated that Nicole would be marrying one of the four known boys within Ellis' deserted dating pool. Woof.

The default, worse case scenario guy circled on your MASH sheet was always depressing and clouded an otherwise rosy future; so we came up with another way to define the man who would be waiting for us at the end of the aisle.

A list, compiled of the ideal qualities we sought in our Prince Charmings. He was nameless in high school, but as we left Ellis’ bubble and ventured into a scarier co-ed world, our compasses led us to some other choices in the game of MASH.

Nicole's list was tough though. She didn't just have the standard attributes like good looking, funny and nice. She took Prince Charming's qualifications to the next level.

(Very) smart.
Great sense of style.
Comes from a good family.
Can dance. And preferably tango.
Loves to travel. Globally.
Good cook.
Likes to entertain.
Speaks Spanish. Or will learn.
Cultured.
Appreciates art.
Good luck with that.

It took a couple mismatches and some reordering of attributes, but Nicole found her first choice in the game of MASH and married him yesterday with multinational, cultural gusto and grace.

While we were never going to be able to perfectly predict all that our futures will hold – the house might actually be a mansion, the pink car might actually be blue, and the two kids might turn to three - but I feel confident predicting that Nicole and Alec have a happily ever after in their cards. And yesterday I felt so honored to be standing up for my dear friend as she said, ‘I do’ to her dream come true.

Lo.