Friday I'm in Love

I met my oldest friend in Kindergarten, and I didn't like her because she was friends with this girl who I had gotten into a fight with over a bag of Cheetos. To be fair, she didn't like me either. Nevertheless, my parents hired someone to take care of my younger brother while they worked, and it happened to be her grandma. I remember once my parents taking her coat to be dry cleaned because my brother had gotten snot on it, and I had said, "let's not clean it and give it back." And I got yelled at. 

Anyhow, quite quickly we ended up being friends, and becoming quite close. I would go to her house every day after school and her grandmother would take care of the three of us. At the time, the grandma would always be with my brother since he was so little, and she and I would play. It was like having a sister, since we got along really well, but would also fight about stupid things every now and then. "You treat your barbies better than my barbies!!" I said once. 

"You also treat your barbies better than my barbies!!" She yelled back. 

We didn't talk for an hour, but then got over it because honestly if we didn't talk to each other, there was no one else to talk to, and no one else to play with. 

After we moved away, we stayed in touch, up until now. 

I flew back from China to attend her wedding, in Boston, to her high school sweetheart. They had broken up while in college, but got back together while she was in dental school. I remember the first time hearing about him, when she came to New York and he was meeting her in the city. We had gone to lunch and she had commented that she was on some sort of diet, and I had been surprised, because she has always been slender. "You don't need to be on a diet," I had said.

"I know," she said, "but he has to lose weight so he's on a diet, so I feel like I have to be on one too, to support him." The things that people sacrifice for love.

The ceremony was held in a beautiful botanical garden outside Boston, the Tower Hill Botanical Garden. Luckily, the weather was gorgeous. When they announced husband and wife, the song "Friday I'm in Love," by the Cure played.

Both of the fathers gave very cute and touching speeches. The bride's father said, "I am both sad and happy today. I am happy because my daughter has found love. But I am sad because after so many years, she is leaving me for another man...I know [the groom] well, because since high school, he has been trying to marry my daughter...welcome to our family."

The groom's father said, "for my own selfish reasons, I wish that he was a little boy again, and I could raise him again. But now, he is all yours." 

There was a dance floor, largely dominated by middle aged Chinese people, who apparently really love to dance. The groom is really into repairing old cars, so they had repaired an old car and it was used to bring the cake.