My best friends' wedding

I went to a wedding on Saturday. Two of my best friends from high school married each other. I cannot begin to express how weird that is for me.

Don't get me wrong; it was a beautiful wedding. I've known Tawni and Nate for years and I am so happy for them. I just feel really, really old! I also can't even fathom getting married at this point in my life. For that to happen, of course, I would first need to find a boy that was interested in me, something that seems unlikely, but that minor detail aside, I couldn't ever see myself getting married before about 25 anyways.

All of this has been so hard for me to process. For one, I'm barely used to the idea of Tawni and Nate being engaged. They dated for over a year in high school, but they broke up early in senior year and things were a bit awkward for a while. By the time we graduated everything was peachy keen, but they were just friends. They got back together last January, and they were engaged by Valentine's Day. I'm not sure I even knew they were dating again before Facebook told me they were engaged! They love each other so much, though, and I know God is guiding their lives, and I know they're going to be very happy together.

The other day in my Music in Film class we watched the opening sequence of The Sound of Music, and I was suddenly struck by a deluge of memories. Tawni and I became friends during our freshman year of high school, thanks largely to marching band and Spanish class, but one thing that really cemented our friendship was our school's production of The Sound of Music. We were both cast as nuns, so we spent a lot of time learning music together and then a lot of time playing cards and tossing a tennis ball around and generally goofing off when we weren't on stage. That all feels like it was only a year ago, two at most, but no...that was FIVE years ago! I've spent so many treasured times with Tawni in the last five-plus years, but I just can't figure out where any of that time went.

I've only known Nate since our junior year of high school, when he transferred from the local Christian school, but I have so many memories with him as well, mostly from our Drama Club adventures. At the wedding, when Nate stepped out in a white tux, I couldn't help but laugh to myself as I remembered our junior prom...Tawni's dress was white, so Nate was the only boy in our group wearing a white tux, and I can still hear Tawni's mom exclaiming, "Nate, you shine like a little angel!"

I don't like growing up. To be honest, I've never really liked it, but I suppose it's inevitable. There's not much else I can do, except reiterate how much I love Tawni and Nate and wait to see where God takes all of us next...


Tawni and me, The Sound of Music, 2004


Tawni and Nate, junior prom, 2006


Nate and me, graduation, 2007


Me, Tawni, Nate, and my sister Alicia, February 13, 2010

I have awesome friends.

As always, I'm just full of things to talk about. My life is kind of ridiculous, but also ridiculously amazing.

I'll start off with the Crystal Ball last Saturday. I don't think I've had so much fun since LeakyCon. I cannot overstate how much I love the folks from hp-ohio. Save for my friend Jordan, whom I've know since eighth grade, I had never met anyone in the group more than once before last weekend, but I feel like I've known them all for years. I got to the beautiful castle grounds about 3 PM, and I went down to the event center to help finish up the decorating. Everything was blue and white and silver and gold, so beautiful and full of magic. Jenny, who was in charge of the ball this year, did such a fabulous job of planning everything. We had lots of fun going through the three tasks of the Triwizard Tournament, and I won the third task by finding where Scabbers was hidden, so I got to keep him! He's adorable, not a filthy, backstabbing traitor. Jenny and Philip taught everyone to waltz, which was a lot of fun. The food was just heavenly, and we danced the night away to a great mix of current pop, pieces from the movie soundtracks, wizard rock, and standard awesomeness like "Jump, Jive, and Wail" and "Thriller." After the ball was over we all went down to the pool house. The pool was supposed to be heated but it was actually freezing, so as many people as possible crowded into the hot tub and the sauna. I didn't have my swimsuit, so I just sat at the edge and dangled my feet in the hot tub. We finally went to bed around 3:30 in the morning. I was exhausted, but it was totally worth it. I can't wait to be able to see all the hp-ohio folks again!! If the weather cooperates, I'll be seeing some of them on Tuesday!

My second occasion to revel in my friends' awesomeness this week came on Tuesday, a very important day in human history. The final season of LOST premiered on television, and as always, I watched it with one of my best friends, Helen. She goes to Marietta College, which is a few hours away, so we always sit on AIM during the show and call each other at the commercial breaks. Helen was totally on fire this week! She called so many things before they happened and she came up with several extremely interesting theories. I'm not even going to go into a LOST discussion here because I'd wind up writing for hours, but I'll just say that this season is going to be every bit as insane and mind-blowing as we all anticipated. If you're looking for some good LOST discussion, you should check out this made-of-awesome blog.

My final instance of awesomeness this week was last night/early this morning. It was decided that a party was in order, so party we did. I've said it before, but I'll say it again: I can't overstate how much I appreciate my friends making accommodations for me as far as alcohol is concerned. I hate alcohol. I've had sips of wine, of a mojito, and of margarita before, and even though they might have had other good flavors in them, I couldn't get over the taste of the alcohol. I can't even imagine drinking beer because it smells so awful to me. And even if I liked alcoholic things, I wouldn't be drinking at a party anyways because I'm only twenty. Call me a square, but I'm not a fan of breaking the law. Anyways, my friends made sure there was plenty of Dr. Pepper on hand for me, and they taught me to play beer pong with cups full of Dr. Pepper mixed in with the cups of beer, even though that kind of messes with the rules because I couldn't help drink the other team's leftovers when we lost. I surprised myself and everyone else by being more than halfway decent at the game, and I don't really think being sober gave me much of an advantage. I may be laying off the Dr. Pepper for a while, though, because between two rounds of beer pong and a game of kings, I drank well over a liter.

Yeah, my life is kind of ridiculous. Even so, I wouldn't trade it for anything. :)