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22nd November 2009

A perfect end and beginning of a year

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A perfect end and beginning of a year

My weekend has been everything for which a girl (still in heart) could wish.

Susan arrived late on Friday night. We decided that it would be wiser to go grocery shopping then, rather than waking up early and going in the morning (which is funny because since she got married, she has become an early morning person. How quickly I corrupt her back into her late night habits!), so we wandered around the grocery store looking for fresh cranberries and hoping to find clotted cream (we were unsuccessful on both accounts). We did find crumpets though! I’ve never had crumpets before. We gathered all of the ingredients, plus a fresh bouquet of flowers for the table and went to bed.

Saturday, I woke up remembering that we forgot to pick up chocolate chips for the scones. So after a mad dash to the corner store and a quick breafkast, Suz and I set down to work. She made the pumpkin bread while I made the apricot chutney and cranberry sauce. We then realized that I had underestimated how much flour and butter would be involved (a pound and a half of butter. Writing that is making my arteries clog!) and I ran off to the store again, and then I cut butter into flour and kneaded the various scones, while Suz made the sandwiches. Of course, I underestimated the time it would take to make everything, so all my friends arrived while we were still cooking. They were fabulous though, and stepped in, and before I could blink, we had the spread laid out, complete with mock clotted cream. It was worth all of the effort. Everybody seemed to have a good time, trying different teas and sandwiches and talking about boys, Jane Austen, more boys, and sundry other topics.

No one was tempted by the offer of four hours of the new Emma, so soon, Susan and I found ourselves alone and relaxing on the couch. We’ve been friends for almost 13 years now: she was one of the first people I met when I started college. She lived down the hall from me during the summer right after graduation; we were in a summer science program for women and Susan and her roommate painted her room as a jungle and had a Kermit frog that sat on her shelf (I think, the details are getting blurry). I still remember dissolving into hysterics when we were writing our mathematics proof paper. I think most who initially meet Suz thinks that she is a fairly reserved person, but somehow, the combination of her wit and my foolish nature matched. We bounded over X-Files and Darth Maul, Mr Y and the entire Oliver saga. I have a collection of scraps of paper that detail mathematical equations of love from random conversations in church.

Our friendship has weathered some very tough years. I’ll admit that I had a very hard time when she dated, then became engaged and subsequently married, which had nothing directly to do with her husband, as I really could not have picked a better guy for her. Rather, it was being replaced as her best friend and knowing how much things would change. There was a time, towards the end of my first year of med school, that I was pretty sure that we weren’t going to make it as friends. I’m sure that Susan would agree. I was overwhelmed and absorbed with medical school and all its drama and I didn’t recognize her struggles with her life: changing career directions, adjusting to married life, and trying to balance the upheaval of moving with an emotionally dependent friend.

I sobbed on her wedding day. I cried on the day she moved, feeling that I had lost my friend forever. That first year was rough, but slowly, our friendship recollected itself. I moved to a city only 4 hours away, allowing for intermittent visits and reconnection. We rediscovered each other through our blogs, as we got to experience each others’ daily life in a way that we hadn’t been able to do since we were roommates. So yesterday, as we sat on my couch, talking about our fears, concerns and hopes for the future, there was no awkwardness, no hesitancy, but just the comfortable, intimate feeling of being with my friend. We laughed ourselves sick driving to Trader Joe’s, then to the opera, remembering some road trips and giggled all the way home. Just like old times.

The opera was lovely. Milwaukee Opera has very minimalistic sets, just a couple of simple props (lights on the floor, a small desk, etc) to set the stage, which probably helps reduce their costs of performing a opera, but does make it more difficult to be drawn into the story. The tenor was phenomenal, the soprano less so, but the music was as gorgeous as I had hoped (although I think Turandot is my favorite Puccini opera music-wise. It’s obvious how much he had matured in his composition by the time he wrote it.). We ran into one of my attendings that I worked with on the infectious disease service, which was weird.

Today, we munched on scones and watched Emma (she declared that there weren’t enough smoldering looks) and went to church, where I hugged my friend goodbye. We’re meeting again in 2 weeks to see The Merry Widow, so the absence will be of short duration.

My day ended with phone calls, emails and messages from friends and family wishing me a happy birthday (Chris even remembered, the first time in our 7 year friendship. That girlfriend of his is definitely doing some good!). I couldn’t have asked for better.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 22nd, 2009 at 10:45 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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