A Wedding and A Funeral (who died? Our dignity.)

What a wonderful weekend in my beloved Bloomington. I knew once I finally escaped from that place I would love going back to visit. It is most definitely one of my favorite places on earth.

Ashly Shell (now forever known as Ashly Pixler) got married on August 12th and it was such a lovely reunion. Ashly looked beautiful and the ceremony and reception were so pretty. Plus Smato was somehow convinced to wear a dress so that was just the icing on the cake. But we all went out the night before the ceremony and I remember sitting there talking to Smato and McVey and thinking how much I appreciate all of the friendships from freshman year of college. It is such a hodgepodge of personalities and people, all thrown together and forced to either make it work or spend the year hiding in your room. We made it work. Good lord did we make it work. Not only for that first year but for sophomore year too. And even as we all got more into our different grooves in college – newspapers, jobs, boyfriends, school work – all pulling us away from one another. We were still such a family. The most different mess of people you can imagine. But we were there for each other. And we didn’t judge or manipulate or use one another like some friends tend to do as you get older. We supported, and harassed and gave each other shit 24/7 – but we were a family. In the way that you can only be with the people who know absolutely everything about you.

I haven’t seen a few of them in years. We have different lives, we went separate ways. We left college.

But when we all got back together it was like we still lived next door to one another in Villas – Trellis’ poof fell sideways, McVey got drunk and disheveled, I tried to go swimming in the middle of the wedding reception, Kristin listened to all the shenanigans from the night before and told us all we were idiots and Smato just crossed her arms over her chest and made outrageous comments which she found absolutely hilarious. When Kristin left the reception I cried and Smato grabbed my bags and laughed in my face before leaving me sitting in the parking lot.

This might not sound quite so wonderful to anyone else. But to me – it is friendship and comfort and home. It’s like we all went away and are living these wonderful lives. But the minute we all get together again we immediately digress into the mentality of college freshman. Spending every moment together, knowing exactly what the others were going to do, and rationalizing even the most ridiculous behavior as perfectly acceptable.

The kicker was as Ashly’s reception came to a close. There were four of us from freshman year sitting in t-shirts and pajama shorts eating an enormous bag of potato chips and talking about nothing, and Ashly was plopped down in the middle of the group wearing her wedding dress. Some things never change. And sometimes there is nothing better than seeing old friends and having a good time.