Bloody Finger Reunion

We had four out of five of my best girlfriends in town last weekend - so we decided to call it a reunion even though the teacher in Taiwan was missing.

It was fantastic!!!! The Brit, NYC, me, and the lawyer were all together again for the first time in about 2 years.

On Friday night we just stayed in at my place (ate about $65 worth of Indian food) and waited for Andrea to arrive from NY. Then we slowly broke the news to her about Ness getting engaged (which apparently makes the rest of us feel like old maids), and then watched movies and drank wine.

Saturday was a slightly different story. Ness, Andrea and I went to Jaime Kennedy's Wine Bar for dinner (very good and EXTREMELY affordable). Great food (always a gourmet style poutine of sorts on the menu), great wine, and a nice little atmosphere. Four bottles of wine later we ended up meeting Tuula and her godsister at the Bier Markt (usual idiots doing all the usual thing). That wasn't nearly good enough for us, so we went to the Resevoir Lounge to listen to some jazz. That ended up not being out scene, so we ended up at the Underground. I haven't been to that place since Rich and I broke up about 6 months ago, so it was pretty funny to walk in and see all the same people that I used to see.

The Underground is the bar version of Men in Black. I swear when you walk in the door they bleep you with one of those things that takes your memories away and you just wake up 12 hours later in your bed (or hallway as has happened to many people I know) with $100 or so missing from your bank account. Then the next time you go - you may or may not find incriminating polaroids of yourself and other doing lewd acts or baring parts of your body plastered on the wall outside of the DJ booth. I've been fortunate enough to keep my clothes on when I'm there, and the only pictures that have ended up on the wall are me kissing Alex on the cheek (Lucky lady I am). Though I have been there on many occasions when others have ended up topless, and I still chuckle at those moments - mostly because I reneged on a bet that went something like "I'll do it if you do it", and then I never did it - in my defense, the bet was with a man, so it's not like he had anything to show.

On with the story. We all ended up at the Underground, but it was so late when we got there that we only had time to chug one vodka redbull (and they use the kind of redbull that you really only get in Chinatown. It comes in a glass bottle and is very thick - I threw it up all over Rich's bathroom the first time I drank one - funny enough that was one of the nights where the MIB bleeped me...). But I think that may have been enough - because we ended up back at my place taking pictures of ourselves in a hideous fleece jacket and heels (and nothing else - mind you, the jacket is large enough to be a dress) that was bought as a joke for a friend's brother.

Tuula's pictures are certainly the best (she really got into character) as she's posing on all fours biting on something in one, posing as a geek's dream with a playstation in another, and upside down on a lazy boy with her finger in her mouth in another. Quite striking really...

I think it was 3:30 by the time the pizza arrived, and 5:30 by the time we got to bed, but boy was it fun! My poor roommate was probably kept wide awake, but at least it was a Saturday night. I think we also decided that night that we're going to have a bachelorette party for Vanessa in Montreal next year.

Man oh man it was a good time. I really miss those girls...

One down - four to go...

Well... the first of my highschool girlfriends has gotten engaged...

We've avoided this predicament/plague infiltrating our group for close to 30 years; so it's not that I'm surprised that it's happened, but a part of me is sad that 1/5 of our "band" is now going to have a legal other half. What about the reunion tour we have planned for a few years down the road??

I walked into her house last night and babbled on for about 1o minutes about complete nonsense before I realized that she and her beau were both looking at me with silly grins on their faces. So of course I just continued my nonsensical ramblings and then glances down at her hand that was oh so delicately (and somewhat awkwardly) resting on the kitchen counter. Once I saw the ring I (of course) screamed like a little girl - she of course joined me and we continued to squeal while hugging and jumping around in a circle. It was pretty stereotypical behaviour really, but by the end of it we were both shaking like leaves.

Turns out her boyfriend (fiance now I guess) proposed on Christmas Day when they were visiting his family in England. She was drying her hair on Christmas morning and he was hanging around getting in the way. She was getting pretty annoyed with him, and just as she was walking out the door to go downstairs, he told her that he had one more present for her. She got very mad because this went completely against their deal of a spending limit and that all the gifts between them were given before they left for England. So she of course yelled at him for a moment until he handed her a tiny package that was quite obviously a little book. She got it about halfway open and saw that on the cover was a bride and a groom.

At this point she started to freak out a little bit. She threw the book across the room and started screaming. At which point her boy managed to get the ring out and eventually sputtered "uh, I think we should get married..." to her. She continued to scream and exclaim profanity and poke at the ring. Then she stopped screaming, started shaking, and began to laugh.

I think she eventually said yes (presumably - because she's wearing the ring and they've picked a castle in Oxford where they want to get married). So now I'm excited to be a bridesmaid and help her look for dresses. We're definitely going to go to some of the really tacky stores just for giggles.

I'm just having a hard time believing that I've reached the point in my life where my friends are getting married - it was strange enough when my brother and Sara did it - but now my friends too!