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And They're Gonna Get Maaaarried! 2004-04-17, 9:42 a.m. My best friend Squish’s fiancé (for now, I’ll call him The Sociologist) was in town this weekend for an Academic Conference in the vicinity of my office, and I offered him my couch last night so that he wouldn’t have to get a hotel room and spend lots of money. I have always liked The Sociologist and have always been very happy for he and Squish because they are obviously very much in love and I am thrilled beyond belief that they found each other and that they’re getting married this fall. I had no idea, however, just how much I was going to like this guy. He is the type of person who can talk to anyone, so my fears that we would sit in stony silence with nothing to say to each other were quite unfounded. We went out to dinner at my very favorite barbecue joint and during the dinner conversation, I realized just how very lucky I am to have a friend like Squish, and how important she and I are to each other. The Sociologist knew stories about the crazy things that we did in college, he knew that I have a special weakness for boys who spout the most incredible break-up lines (such as, “call me in a year…I’ll be ready then”), and he knew that Squish and I are as close as sisters, despite the fact that we only see each other a few times a year. I still can’t believe that Squish is getting married. One drunken night during freshman year of college, Squish and I were in our dorm room and she was admiring a quilt that my great-grandmother had made many years ago (that to this day is still the best nap blanket that ever existed). I promised her that I would make her a quilt when she got married, and since we both assumed that would be light-years in the future, I promptly forgot about it. Since then, Squish has gently reminded me of that promise every time she started dating someone new. “You know, when I get married, you promised you’d make me a quilt…” When Squish met The Sociologist, she called me the morning after their first date and said it was the best date she’d ever been on. After Squish announced her engagement a few months ago, I promptly went to the fabric store and recruited my mom to help me with the sewing, and now, the quilt top is done. I’m going to have a local quilt shop do the batting and backing and quilt it by machine, and then I’m going to hand-sew the binding sometime this summer. I will post photos when it’s complete, but I’m really proud of it. I also can’t wait to see Squish’s face when she opens the box, to see her reaction when she sees her wedding gift and knows that I didn’t forget, and to see her smile when she realizes that it matches the colors they’ve chosen for their first house, and it is the perfect size for napping on lazy weekend afternoons. I was a little envious when Squish first started planning her wedding, and I feel like a horrible friend for it. But my eyes well up with tears every time I think about how this is right for her and how much I love these two people and how lucky I am to have them in my life. And I know that I’ll be Aunt Jana to her kids and she’ll be Aunt Squish to mine, and she’ll be the same old Squish even when she’s Mrs. Sociologist and she’ll still tell me when to get over myself and when to get over bad news boys, and she’ll still call me to tell me that she met my future husband at a meeting/bar/doctor’s appointment. We’ll both wish we lived in the same town, and when we are together, we’ll still laugh until our sides hurt and tears are streaming down our faces and she’ll always have the nicest things to say, and I’ll always always and always love her.
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