Friends Forever

Since this is my blog, and I can pretty much do whatever I want, I thing I am going to skip Part II for the time being and write about what is on my mind at this precise moment. The reason being is that I am sitting in my friend's house in Geneva right now, and although I have every intention of eventually telling you what happened at O'Brien's after that initial night, there are much more interesting things going on in my head right now.

Just to give you a little bit of background - when I was in high school I hung around with a bunch of people I worked with at the hospital. (Don't worry - we worked in the kitchen, not saving lives or anything like that.) Anyway, one of my best friends back in the day was this girl Julie. She was really fun and really nice, and had two cute older brothers to boot. At the time, I was dating one of the other guys we worked with, Dave, who actually was my first REAL boyfriend. Long story short, eventually, Dave was stolen away by another so-called friend of mine at the time, Julie and I eventually lost touch due to my indescretions over the years, and finally found our way back to each other.

Another friend of mine during this time was Dave's best friend, Jerry. Jerry was the type of friend who was a boy and a friend, but never a "boyfriend." At times I thought I WANTED him to be, but really, I didn't. He was more like a big brother than anything. My parents especially loved him, because he was really a good guy. For example, I remember one particular time on his 21st birthday (when I was only 18) I got REALLY drunk on Southern Comfort and even though he just dropped me off at the front door, because he called my parents to apologize and explained that it was his 21st and he was VERY irresponsible and hoped I was ok, they thought he was just the BEST guy in the world. ANYWAY.

So, I have these two friends, who have both known each other forever, but who have not really seen each other for a long time. Jerry (whose first wife I had fixed him up with - another story for another time) had been divorced for a while, and Julie was still waiting for her divorce to be final. It happened to be my birthday, and I convinced Julie to come out for a few drinks. Jerry, good friend that he is, had already planned on being there. But when the two of them crossed paths after Lord knows how many years of not seeing each other... well, I guess that's where you'd say Karma stepped in.

Apparently in the twenty-odd years of knowing each other neither of them had ever explored the mutual attraction. And it seemed the perfect opportunity just happened to be at my birthday outing. Never mind that my first matchmaking attempt had resulted in disaster (well, not totally, he DID have two great daughters), or that the ink on Julie's divorce papers weren't even dry - there was a spark that was undeniable. Long story short, they are in love, they are happy, and they are getting married.

Happy, happy... joy, joy. Watching them today with their combined daughters was nothing short of incredible. Yes, there is some stress and tension, which is to be expected with any combined family (look at the Brady's - those stupid pets TOTALLY ruined the cake!!) but all in all, they looked SO HAPPY. And I have to admit I am extremely jealous. Granted, I have a man in my life (as you know), but at this moment, things are still pretty fresh and new... and who really knows where things will lead? But from what I can tell, Julie and Jerry have followed the "happy family" recipe to a T - and will manage over the lumps and bumps and still have each other to turn to at night before they go to sleep, and still have loving eyes to look into every day.

I'm really hoping that for once my matchmaking skills won't backfire on me - but I really don't think they will. They are both great people, and the only thing I am having a hard time figuring out is how I didn't see their connection 20 years ago... Hell, I wonder how THEY didn't see it 20 years ago. But whatever the reason, they have found each other now, and the two of them have given me the inspiration to believe that somewhere out there is the man who will complete me as they have completed each other. Maybe I have already found him, who knows? But if I haven't I won't give up, because I have seen the real thing - which is rare in this day and age. And since I have always seemed to live vicariously through my friends, I can think of nothing that could have made ME happier than seeing two of my best friends wind up together.