I’m at that age where everyone is starting to get married. My high school friends started a long time ago, and a good number of them have kids now. But my childhood friends have taken a little longer, maybe because they’re either busy getting really educated or enjoying the fun of single life. Well, this summer, that has officially changed. In June, Ben (my boyfriend when I was 3 years old!) is getting married, and the weekend before Memorial Day, Alice and Shawn tied the knot.
I’ve known Alice since I was seven or so. That’s about twenty years. It’s crazy to think of lengths of friendships in terms of lengths of relationships – at my age, a five year relationship seems long. And though we might not have a lot in common and I’ve spent the last ten of those years away from Louisiana, I’ve kept in better touch with her than anyone else from Baton Rouge. We’ve shared a lot of history, listened to each other’s good stories and bad stories, many of them about boyfriends… shared a love of Sarah McLachlan, Tori Amos, and Vienna Teng. And after years of being a long-distance observer/confidante in her journey, it was really special to see her road of singlehood end at a beautiful ceremony in a city I called my home for a decade and a half.
I really don’t get back to Baton Rouge as often as I want to. The city has changed a lot and many of the people I knew have gone off to other places. Alice took me to the Mall of Louisiana to see how much it’s expanded. There’s now a Sephora in Baton Rouge! Still no Nordstrom, though. On one hand, it’s great that Baton Rouge is becoming more of a “real city,” but I think it comes at the expense of its character. The photo I snapped of the outside shopping area looked as sterile as a computer-modeled image. New residential developments mimic the identical townhouse hell that I hate seeing here in the Issaquah Highlands (and many other places). But one thing Baton Rouge has in its favor is a lot of land, which means they don’t need to knock down the old places as much. So I got to make my traditional trip to Mike Anderson’s, still the same, to eat one of my favorite meals of stuffed crab, stuffed potato, and hush puppies.
Next year is my 10 year high school reunion (OLD!!!) so it looks like I’ll finally make a trip back to Louisiana that isn’t for a wedding. :) Until then, I’ll be dreaming of crawfish.
Congratulations to Alice and Shawn!
