Let The Celebration Begin...

For almost thirty-one years, I have had a friend.

I met her on the very day she was born, when I was exactly two months and two weeks old.

And this friend and I, we have been through a lot together, good and bad, happy and sad. Our moms are best friends too, and we grew up together in Pittsburgh, running around my backyard and hers, swimming in her pool, celebrating snow days with cookies and long walks to the movie theater when our parents' cars were snowed in, watching Steeler games, and celebrating my birthdays with sleepover parties and art projects at night, and her St. Patrick's Day birthdays with sleepover parties and green bagels in the morning.

When we were thirteen and my family moved away from Pittsburgh for awhile we drifted a little bit, but it didn't seem to matter. Because our friendship is the kind that sticks. The kind that can't be hurt by time and space and distance. The kind that only gets better with time.

It is a friendship that has endured as we have grown and become who we are.

We survived law school and the bar exam and our very first real jobs together, and celebrated when she moved to New York and settled in mere blocks from where I lived. She was my first call after my family when David and I got engaged, and she walked down the aisle at our wedding, standing up for me as I started a new phase in my life.

And now. Now I get to do the same for her. Because last Friday afternoon the phone rang, and when I saw it was her I just knew. I knew she was calling to tell me that she had gotten engaged. And she was. Her voice radiated happiness and excitement, and a little bit of awe at the sudden, exquisite change.

And so, a new phase of our lives is about to begin, ushered in by months of parties and planning and dresses and wild fun. And I am honored to be a part of it all. To watch my best friend, my forever friend, take her next steps into a bright and beautiful future.

Congratulations R and B. Wishing you lots of love and happiness, always.