Wednesday, November 12, 2008

I held onto this longer than the friendship.

I had a dream about the girl who gave this to me, let's just call her E, last night and we were at the wedding of a mutual friend, which in real life we should have been but I got sick and didn't go. In the dream, she asked if I still had all the stuff I got on my 25th birthday which included this jar and I told her that most of it, I didn't know where it was but that I had kept this jar at my parents' house for years and finally gave it away. (All true.) And she didn't seem upset or anything in the dream, just kind of like "Okay."
And so I decided to write about this jar next.
It has the quote, "Joy is not in things, it is in us." On the bottom, she painted "Happy Birthday, Hillary."
That was one of the best birthdays ever.
My favorite people, these four girls who lived at the Cedar House (dubbed that due to its location) threw me a surprise gathering with all our friends and there was a huge potluck. I had to take my dj test that night, so before the test, I went over to their house and had dinner, was surprised, then went to take my test.
All the while, we listened to our college radio station since my best friend was playing all David Bowie for me. I had a tape of his show for the longest time. After my test, I went up to the cafe and there was another surprise. Those lovely Cedar girls had brought a cake and everyone, studiers and all, sang "Happy Birthday" to me.
I loved that day.
What is bittersweet about the whole thing is that I only still know/keep in touch with one of the Cedar girls and I don't really think anyone else I was with that day.
The memory remains good and happy though, even if I did give away the jar.

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