My Friend's Wedding

This is a picture from one of my favorite shows, "How I Met Your Mother"... it's about good friends, who pal around with each other, care about each other, worry about each other, and more importantly, hang around with each other. That's what good friends do after all. In fact, one character in the show Barney (portrayed wonderfully by Neil Patrick Harris), traveled across the country after suffering through months and months of seeing his friend Marshall in a severe state of depression. Now why was he did he go cross country? Was it because he couldn't stand his friend anymore? Was he just selfish and wanted to go on a vacation to get away from his friend? Nope... It was to see Marshall's ex-girlfriend, to tell her that she and Marshall belonged together, and that she would never find anyone else better, and she should go back home and be with Marshall. That is what a friend is... though he might not show that side of him all the time... THAT is what a friend is deep down.

I really love that show. Added plus... another character Robin, she's really pretty. She's the one on the left.


A little off subject but anyway... so today, I'm going to say a few words about my friend who's getting married this weekend.

In my opinion, my friend and I were pretty close. You might get a different opinion from her now, but there was a time when I would be worried sick about her. Whether she was going to have a job, whether or not I would have to say good-bye to her because she couldn't stay in this country without a job. Things like that. I'm sure she also worried about me and the constant laundry list of problems I deal with it on a daily basis. So based on these examples, I think we were pretty close. If we were worrying about each other, by definition, we were probably pretty close friends.

But now, probably not so much anymore. We used to have breakfast every workday morning and chit chat about random stuff. But those morning chats disappeared and then stopped happening. One day while sitting in the lunchroom/kitchen at work, some guy who usually doesn't talk to me, asked me this one simple question...

"So where's your breakfast buddy?"

Ahh... if it was so simple to answer, everything would make a little more sense.

But such is life, people drift apart, meet new people and go on living their lives. But these are usually people I leave behind when I change jobs, they change jobs, or move away.... not when I still see them on a constant basis in the hallways. That's what saddens me the most. I kind of figured that I would be watching my friend get married in a ceremony around here, and be happy for her, or at the very least see what she looks like in a wedding dress. But it's her wedding I have no reason to bitch and moan. Hopefully I'll see pictures someday.

Don't get me wrong. I am still very happy for my friend, her marriage, her new husband, and glad it's all happening. But now unfortunately, it has the feel of getting a phone call from an old classmate who say that they heard that a college friend got married a few weeks ago. I could not describe it any better than that.

So I offer my congratulations, raise a glass, look in someone's eyes (because you know what happens if you don't look someone in the eye during a toast) and say, "Cheers!"

May they live wonderful lives together happily for a long long time.

LeeZy

Epilogue: 24 hours before my friend gets married, she instant messages me and we have a very brief chat of what she just did, and how she has 24 hours to go until she is a "Mrs". I asked if she was doing OK and if her brain has turned to mush from all the planning. She said everything was fine, brain is not mush, but she also wishes she was there a little bit longer. But she is perfectly fine.

So with that being said, I no longer feel like I'm just hearing about a college friend get married as second hand information. It's amazing what a little communication will do. But for the purposes of telling the story, I won't delete anything from above and you can read, how it happens... It's how I felt at the time. Cheers!