I was going through some old pictures and really got to missing my bff, Miss Ariel Latch. She and I have been best friends for who knows how many years, and since we left each other in high school, where we did almost everything similarly and together, our lives have gone in such different directions. I've stayed in school, sometimes I think because I just didn't know what else to do, and it's what I was "supposed" to do. I've had a few different roommates, lived abroad, and traveled extensively during the summers. Ariel's gotten married and has a great little apartment overlooking the Sound in Tacoma. She has a baby! His name is Liam Jack Vining, and he's fantastic.

I don't envy her, because I know that getting married and raising a family isn't in my future, at least not in my near future. But there is something really beautiful about her life. She is just a go-with-the-flow kind of girl, and I always worried about her and sort of clucked over her even though she's two years older than I am, because I didn't think anyone could be "successful" without extensive planning and effort. She's really found her own way in life, though, and it's really inspiring in a way. There is a part of her that I'll never understand or be able to emulate, which is her ability to roll with the punches. Admittedly, she's sometimes the one doing the punching, but look where it's gotten her. She's really happy. If my life had spiraled in as many different directions as hers has, and my goals had changed so much, I probably would be miserable. But she really epitomizes that Lennon quote, "Life is what happens while you're busy making plans." I don't want to stop planning, but I have to admit hearing the siren song of not being burdened by what you think you need.

This is a scrapbook page I just found, which I had done when I found out she was going to have Liam. We didn't know he was going to be a boy, then, obviously, so he was just Baby. And I was Aunt Meggie. What a trip! I sometimes wonder if I'll ever again feel that thrill of fear and incredulity, joy and anxiety. Sometimes I think that Ariel was like my surrogate mother, in a way, because I don't intend to have any children, but I am so close to Ariel, and stayed that way through to his birth, which I was in the room for for most of the nearly-day-long labor, that I really feel like I got the experience in a way. I think that's okay with me. I just know that without hardly knowing Liam yet, I miss him and think of him constantly! I really hope that I can make plans with Ariel to get together soon and see that kid.





Now here he is!


I guess from this you can see I'm missing my family quite a bit, and I include my closest friends in the category. Ariel really is as much of a sister as a friend. We frustrate each other, sometimes have worse fights than I've even gotten close to with any of my actual sisters, but we always work it out. It's like we're this bizarre yin-yang. We are so similar in almost every way (we're even both Scorpios if you buy into that), but we've taken it in such different ways that we balance out really well. It just works. I miss her and her sweet child! :P