  I've known my friend urlLink Mindy since urlLink kindergarten . This August, she's getting urlLink married . I've known this since Christmas, but as more and more plans are finalized, it's seeming more and more real to me. I've seen a few of my cousins get married in the past few years, and a few friends as well, but none are hitting home quite as much as this one.
I guess none of them have seemed so... permanant. Min & Paul have been together 2 years, and for a girl who's normally nauseated around *cute* couples, I love watching them be snuggly. I love that Mindy's as happy as she is. I'm glad that through her, I got to meet Paul, who's a pretty cool guy to talk to. I love watching a couple who, in my mind, there is no doubt will *work*. The idea of marriage in general terrifies me, maybe because I doubt I'll ever find someone that doesn't make the word *forever* seem like such a bad thing. So, on August 24th, I'll be watching someone I used to play hopscotch with, sell girl scout cookies with, talk about *Pop Can*s with (had to be there), get drunk with, quote Monty Python, and sing to Violent Femmes with, commit herself to a life with Paul.
The only scary part about that union - I don't think I'll EVER be able to spell his last name right :o) ~~~ One afternoon, my friend Sarah started asking me what plans I'd made for my wedding. My first thought was, I'm 9, do I really need to think of these things yet? She seemed insistant, so, in order to not be the only freak girl without my wedding planned in the 3rd grade, I made up some details about a dress, and that satisfied her enough, mostly because it let her start going on about ALL her plans... Months later, she asked me what I was going to name my children. "Children? " I thought, " I'm still a child! " But I decided that a boy and a girl was a standard answer, so I picked random names for one of each. I never understood the point in planning some of those things so far in advance. Why start thinking about weddings when you're not even dating someone? Why start naming kids, when you're not ready to have them, or sure you'll want them? Instead, I sat and thought about what I'd name my band when I formed one.
I didn't care that I didn't yet know how to play an instrument, that, to me, seemed irrelevant. I guess in the same way Sarah, at age 9, didn't need to know the name of her future husband to plan their wedding and children. I planned my band's style, image, and am just now, at the age of (almost) 23, taking the steps to learn the guitar.
We'll see if the band that had originally been named *Awesome Rainbow Sunshine* (since altered to Fingercuffs, yes, I still daydream about it all)_ever makes it into the spotlight. Our first album will no longer be named *Boys are Stupid* (though that's not a bad idea, hmmm...) I'm not a normal girl. I'm not ashamed of that fact. 
