Friday, March 28, 2008

Starvation rations

My friend Erin and I used to spend a lot of time together. She lived really close to campus at the time so many days after school I would find myself at her apartment. We would eat together, go shopping together, do homework together, go to the temple together, and just generally hang out together. I even remember one night when I called her after I got done giving tours at the Conference Center at 9:00, and I ended up going to her apartment and eating with her. We were together much of the time.

Since Erin didn't have a car, sometimes I would take her to the grocery store or on other errands she needed to run. One time when we were at the grocery store, Erin was choosing fruit and I was standing near the fruit aisle with a basket. The thought came to me: "This must be what marriage is like." As we got closer to the end of our shopping trip, Erin said something to me like, "Sometimes I feel like you and I are like a married couple." I said, "That's what I was just thinking!"

Erin got married about a year ago. I was privileged to be one of the first people who found out that she and Nate were engaged. The day Erin showed me the ring and grinned until I figured it out was kind of a hard day for me. I was used to spending so much time with her and I have to admit that I was jealous that she was spending her attention on someone else but me. Not that I would have it any other way; she and Nate seem really happy.

The other day Erin and I went to Wendy's together and then I gave her a ride home. It felt a lot like old times in a bittersweet way.

1 comment:

Laverna said...

I felt that way when my older sister got engaged. We had not been particularly close until she started going to college, but then we really bonded.
I think I would have been really bitter about the fellow she was dating if I hadn't had the chance to know him in choir and see that he really was a great guy.
I went over to her house the other day and helped her sort through some of her recently-moved mess. It was almost like talking on the bed late at night when we were so much younger.