hooray!

there comes a certain point in a girl's life in which her friends start to get engaged.  you find out about these engagements in different ways.  i offer an analysis:

if it is a person you are related to, typically a cousin: you find out via an email from her parents, often only to your parents, so then your parent forwards you the email.

if it is a person you are friends with, but not a close enough friend to be invited to the wedding: you find out about her engagement via facebook, send a little "yay!" message, and move on.

if it is a person you were once very good friends with and see every once in a while, but would never just pick up the phone and call: you find out about her engagement via an email sent to the friend group and you get your save-the-date card in the mail a couple months thereafter.  seeing her at her wedding reminds you of how sad you are that you don't communicate more frequently, and you resolve to do so because, damn it, she's awesome.

if it is a person you are good friends with and see/talk to regularly: you get a phone call.  i don't have to tell you that this is the best of all scenarios, because one of your close friends just got engaged.  last night i got one of these calls (!!).  if it goes to voicemail you get a very cryptic message.  i have received two such cryptic messages in my life, and both went exactly like this (actual transcription from the message last night):

"hey - it's colin.  ummm...it's about 8 o'clock your time on sunday.  give me a call!  [giggle.]  um, okay.  bye!"

you think to yourself, "huh...wonder what colin wants to talk about.  why didn't she say more in the message?  hmm."  5 minutes later you sit bolt upright and think, "ohmygod!"  you call your friend back, hear her exciting news, do some screaming, and then she has to hang up to call more people.  you already can't wait to celebrate her special day with her.  because, hoo boy, can miss colin celebrate.

and your life is just a little bit sunnier, knowing that hers has just changed dramatically.

(colin plus me.  we are very good at singing on dance floors with our eyes shut.)


(note: if you are friends with boys, this whole scenario is altered.  with a close friend who got married this summer, i knew about this whole engagement plan in advance, so the phone call from him telling me he was engaged was one i had been waiting for and knew was coming soon.  perhaps the above analysis is only fair for your friends who are girls and who will be marrying a boy.)