A few weekends ago Ted and I made a trip to Massachusetts to see my friend Madeleine.
Maddie and I were best friends in high school, a school filled with hockey jocks and Grateful Dead fans. Since we were neither, we naturally gravitated towards each other. We soon discovered that we had many, many things in common such as the inclination to spend our time writing clever and witty poetry to each other on the back of calculus homework, similar skipping and cartwheel talents, the ability to give each other chic asymmetrical haircuts, an interest in dark, but not goth, lipsticks, general mistrust of the school's religious faculty (it was a Catholic school) and deep and abiding ability to swoon endlessly over whichever combat-boot-clad bad-boy had just crossed our path.
We were also friends with Kip, who is a frequent commenter on this blog. Hi Kip!
Anyway, during and after college we all went our separate ways, and pretty soon it had been ten good years or so since Maddie and I had any meaningful contact. Kip and I occasionally spoke and visited, more so recently than in the years immediately following school.
I would occasionally get news of Maddie from my dad, who despite having a limited hairstyle, still gets it cut by a family friend of Maddie's. So I knew she taught chemistry at our high school for a while, and then moved to Massachusetts where she lives with her husband and two little boys. She, on the other hand, had been alerted to the fact that Ted and I were getting married by another friend of ours who had found my blog.
We all decided that enough was enough and got together for a weekend sleepover at her charming house-in-progress, where we met one of her boys Sammy (so sweet!), consumed stinky cheeses brought by Kip and many bottles of wine. We had a great time.
As we, in our drunken states, forgot to take any photos of us now, here are some photos from then.
Maddie and I at graduation:
Kip at graduation:
Maddie, drunk and silly, in her dorm room in college:
The matching photo of me, drunk and silly, in Maddie's dorm room at college:
And a classic, Maddie and me, drunk and silly at her prom-themed twenty-first birthday party:
I don't think it's stretching the truth to say that Ted really, really enjoys this photo of us.
Anyway, Maddie and Kip, thanks for the all the lovely times, this past visit included. See you soon.
