Wed 10 May 2006
My old friend Vicky (hugging the bunny [me] below) turns 30 today!
In 3rd grade, I came home from school one day and told my mom that there’s a new girl in my class who’s Chinese and she has a younger sister who’s in kindergarten (Karen, left in the above photo). My mom strangely became very interested and started asking all sorts of questions like where they live and whether her mom works. It was strange. But nevertheless, I went to school and relayed the message to Vicky that my mom would like to meet her mom. We kids were very excited to become family friends. And that’s how the business deal was struck. My mom would wake me up way early in the morning and drop me off at Vicky’s house before school on her way to work, and I’d hang out there until Vicky and Karen were up and ready to go to school, then we’d get dropped off by either their mom or dad. As the weather got nicer, we’d walk to school. And after school, we’d walk back to her house, where I’d hang out, cause trouble, do my homework, until my mom came by to pick me up at 5:30p or so.
For awhile there, my mom called Vicky’s mom her best friend. Vicky and I declared ourselves mortal enemies. Decades later, I was sitting with Vicky in her mom’s kitchen before going off to play Bingo at our alma mater high school, and her mom said how she hadn’t seen me in so long and how I’m always welcome in her house because she watched me grow up and I’m like her “second daughter.” There was an small silence, broken by Vicky: “But mom, you already have a second daughter.” Now the silence was awkward. “Oh!” gasped her mom, “I forgot about Karen!”
Happy 30th to Vicky, my long-time friend since 3rd grade, with whom I fought like sisters and still ended up being her bridesmaid at her wedding, just like a sister. (Her actual sister was maid of honor.) I’ll see you on Friday!
(Sorry for the bad quality in photos…all I have is my cameraphone cuz the digital camera was even worse!)
Today was a beautiful day. I had three birthday cakes. Countless people wished me happy birthday. Some even wished me happy birthday every time I walked past them. Over 15 different people sang happy birthday to me; some over the cell phone, some as I cut my birthday cake(s), some as I walked down the hall. Mentors shared their life lessons and wisdom with me. Friends officially welcomed me to the “30’s Club.†I reconnected with old friends I thought I lost touch with.
Today was also a depressing day. Despite all the celebrations at work, home was desolate and cold. After I reminded my husband today was my birthday, he said nonchalantly, “Oh, happy birthday.” When I came home from work he was not home because he had to go back to work. I feel like I live by myself.
Life is very fair. With very much joy comes very much sadness. I’ve never felt so much love and so much loneliness all in the same day. I laughed & smiled a lot. I also cried a lot too.
Despite all of life’s ups and downs Cindy has ended up being the rock in my life. She gives me the best advice a girl can ask for. I don’t know how I made it through so much without her.
Thank you for the wonderful pictures, Cindy. I can’t believe it’s been 22 years. Here’s to 22+ more.
*sniff* I’m sorry about the shadows in your otherwise bright day. *hug hug hug hug hug* We’ll talk.
What a great friendship! 🙂
God, can Vicky’s and my halloween costumes look any more homemade?? I think my costume would have looked better with a Burger King crown than that foil contraption!
Thanks for the kind comments, Cindy. I always considered you a second sister (unlike my mom, I do take account of the other sibling) and in times when Vicky and I were spewing invective at one another, you were always a calming voice of reason. You were also a great big sister to have considering we shared so many interests, starting with our creative streak. Dolls, writing, etc. I hadn’t realized it until this very second — but in those early years, you had a real influence on me. (Those accusations of “Copycat” floating back and forth were not in vain!)
But since this is a tribute to Vicky, I’ll say that I am happy that the two of you have remained so close throughout the years. It defies friendship and it’s actually sisterhood. And I’m glad I can be lumped in that mix.
And here I was feeling guilty for unduly influencing you negatively, Karen. =)
And what’s sadder, as I examine the 2nd photo closer… Karen, I think you were given a paper lunch sack for your treats bag!
[…] This is seriously freaky. While I was collecting photos to put in my mom’s photo frames, I had looked thru all the albums at my disposal. I had some fairly recent stuff that I’d taken, and my mom had also assembled my infancy and childhood photos and given them to me in several albums a few years ago. I had enough for my mom’s frame set, but not for my dad’s. I’m doing the same thing for him, in the same frame, for Father’s Day. The day that I was to go with Vanessa to scan and enlarge the photos for the frames, I found an album, or maybe it was a portion of one, that had a bunch of photos of me in the later elementary school years, which was a stage missing in the collection I was building for my parents’ frames. I remember telling Mr. W over the phone that I’d finished selecting the photos and I had discovered all these pictures in an album that I didn’t know I had and that I was happy I filled in the age gap. That, incidentally, is also where I found the Halloween pictures of me with Vicky and Karen. Now, having completed my dad’s frame, I’m putting the originals away back into the albums. I can not find the album from whence those later elementary school photos came. I’ve gone through my albums several times already, one by one. I’ve scoured my bedroom and the living room just in case I’d pulled the album but didn’t put it back on the shelf. Nothing! Now I have a bunch of scattered photos on the floor and no album to put them back into! Where was this album when I was first searching for photos? And where is it now? Why has it only appeared for one day, the day I needed to make my duplicates? I would be freaked out if it turns out those photos belong in an album that’s still at my parents’ house. Or if I were to go upstairs right now to check the shelves for the umpteenth time, and those loose photos are missing, having evaporated back to the nonexistent space from which they came. […]
[…] I IMed Mr. W yesterday afternoon, “if you don’t have any plans for halloween, wanna go to the mall and watch costumes walk by?” We ended up going to South Coast Plaza, a hoity toity large shopping mall in Costa Mesa (Orange County) and having dinner at a French restaurant in the mall watching little rich kids trick-or-treat store-to-store, from Salvatori Ferragamo to Louis Vuitton to Tiffany. Mr. W cracked a joke about how someone said because he’s recently come into money and been shopping a lot, he now speaks good Italian. “I’m surprised you wanna do this,” he told me as we were watching little pumpkins, pirates, wizards and fairies run by. But I didn’t want to do it cuz I think kids are just so freaking adorable in their coot wittle costumes begging for free loot. It just takes me back to when I was in elementary school and the weather would be really cold so my mom wouldn’t let me trick-or-treat out in the neighborhood, and instead made me, childhood friend Vicky and her sister Karen go to the mall to beg for candy and stickers from stores instead. I know there’s a photo somewhere…lemme try to find it… Oh, here we go! Click here. […]
now.. THAT’S what friendship is all about! cute costumes!
vicky – for what it’s worth, i’ve felt the same loneliness. but just think, now all your bdays will be COMPLETELY beautiful ones.
wishing u the best,
a