Monday Mumblings of Memorable People

With the recent passing of a friend of mine, I thought that I would start a new tradition on here with writing about friends and our wonderful times together. Just to put it down and be able to look back and laugh and or cry about our journey together as friends. I have met a lot of people in my short life and I believe they have all had a reason for being there, whether it was to teach me a lesson, lend me a hand, learn something about myself, or just being there as a true friend. I think that a lot of people have helped mold me into who I am today. I automatically want to jump right in and start talking about my college friends, but I think I'm going to wait for that and start with my oldest/longest friend. We haven't had the typical so called friendship that people would think of when someone has the title of best friend, but that we are. I know that I can turn to her for any reason, at any time and I know without a doubt she would be there for me.

"Jean" and I met before we were born. It was like we were destined to be best friends. Our mothers were friends through church and so we grew up attending the same church, elementary school, middle school and high school. College drew us apart, but only through distance. We never really talked on a daily basis, only when we felt the need to. We have a relationship of more like one that we can rely on one another, rather than needing one another to talk to everyday. We have very similar family lives so it's easy for us to connect on that level. However, Jean was always the more outgoing friend and I was more the follower. Since college, my personality has changed a lot and that led us to clash, when I would no longer "follow" her suggestions. We still remain close, recently coming back into contact, but she lives 3 hours away now.

The story that I want to share always brings a smile to my face. It was the weekend of my brother's wedding. She was my date, since I didn't have a boyfriend at the time. We were both 18 at the time. I wasn't in the wedding party, but was told that I could join them in all the activities that they had. The evening before the wedding they were having a party in their hotel rooms. Jean and I found our way over to the main room and found drinks in our hands, beer pong being played and chatting amongst the new faces in the room. My mother soon joined and the fun quickly died down. The following afternoon before the wedding my mother made a point to make sure to tell us this direct quote "...there will be no drinking of alcohol tonight. You are not of age and it will not happen." Jean and I looked at one another and just agreed. We knew we had our work cut out for us if this was going to be a fun night.

That night, during the reception, we snuck into the bridal room and grabbed a few drinks from the bridal party. We returned to the cocktail hour and resumed our duties of "not drinking" in the sights of my mother. Once we were seated at the table, I spoke to my sister about getting us drinks. (the bartenders were IDing) She agreed and the next think I know, here she is bringing us bottles of beer. Jean and I look at one another and start laughing. How on earth are we supposed to drink these sitting at the table with my mother?? We moved on to our next "helper" for the night, a groomsman. We hit the jackpot, he ventured over to the bar and ordered up 2 jack and cokes. We had them delivered to our table after every song. We were on the dance floor the entire night. Every song we were up and dancing. The DJ was awesome. He had props and was very energetic. He actually wound up doing my sister's wedding 3 years later. When we returned from the dance floor, my grandmother watches go to pick up the drinks and she says "Oh I don't think you girls should drink those, some guy just came over and put them down. I wouldn't trust these people here." We lost it, doubled over laughing. Here we are at a family function and my grandmother doesn't trust "these people". As the night went on, we continued with our drinks under my mother's watchful eye. When the night was coming to an end, we jumped on the shuttle bus back to the hotel and hurried into another hotel room for the after party. There we continued with our drinking and beer pong, until my mother forced us to go back to the room and sleep.

The next morning we hurried out of there and home again before we were lectured. My mother never mentioned anything to us about drinking or our behavior from that night. Looking back now, I'm positive she had to have known we were drinking. That night was one of our favorites, being young and thinking we were getting away with defying my mother and having a great time. It also helped us keep ourselves in check though. We knew we couldn't get out of control and get caught, so it was probably for the better that my mother denied us access to alcohol. We were still young and hadn't experienced all the effects that alcohol could do to us. College answered those questions for us though.

That is just one of many stories that I have about Jean. I miss having her living down the street from me, but it's great that we have skype and are able to talk whenever we need to.