"May your marriage have enough humor to keep you laughing, enough passion to keep it alive, and enough babies to make Brangelina jealous"
"Midget" is what the bride has always called me. At 5’1", I consider myself pretty tall, compared to other midgets. I currently hold the title of Undefeated Champion in Mario Kart (only on Super Nintendo) and will challenge anyone to a match!! I admire Hilary Clinton for her strength and wit and idolize Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (better known as Jackie-O) because she is the epitome of class. I’m super OCD when it comes to cleaning and organizing. Don’t put my shoes out of order or I’ll have to cut someone’s throat. Cooking is my passion and the kitchen is my sanctuary. If I’m having a bad day, you can find me in the kitchen taking it out on some green onions or something. There’s no better feeling for me than to know that my man and my family and friends can always expect to be fed well with me... nothing can beat a bowl of homemade pho! My inspiration in the kitchen: my mama. I guess it’s no surprise I am in love with the movie Ratatouille!
It has been about 15 years since Natalie and I first became friends. We were in the 3rd grade and it was during recess when Natalie came up to me to introduce herself. I was drawing in the dirt with a twig when she approached me. She told me she was my new next door neighbor and her name was Natalie. We instantly became best buds and she was constantly a fixture at my house. It was very convenient to have a best friend who lived next door. We were too young to drive so walking next door to your best friend’s house was just as convenient as it could get. We walked back and forth to each other’s houses so much that there was a permanent trail of dead grass going from her door to mine.
We were similar growing up. She and I were both huge tomboys, even giving each other boy names (Kris and Nathan.. Don’t ask me how we came up with it. We just did.) and we had our favorite basketball jerseys that we wore A LOT. We even pretended like we were such great basketball players and dribbled the ball around our driveway. I remember her hair was always a tangly mess. She had bangs that were cut straight across and her hair was always shoulder length. My hair was always long and pulled back into a tight ponytail. I could never let it down because I would look too much like a girl. Our childhood as far as I can remember consisted of us doing a lot of outdoor activities. We weren’t as lucky as kids these days with these PS3’s and Nintendo DS’s (I still don’t know how to use a Playstation, let alone a Playstation 3.) We rollerskated around the streets, dug up bugs and worms in the dirt, walked to the school playground to collect pebbles (the ones that had fossil imprints on them), practiced karate with my brothers, and played a lot of outdoor sports. I remember when we played baseball outside, each of our makeshift bases was a sandal or a shoe! We were always trying to rap along to songs and she showed me up one day with the entire Fresh Prince of Bel-Air song memorized. My comeback? I rapped Coolio’s "Gangster’s Paradise"! We were little wannabe hoodrats. There was this one time when we were in 5th grade, we missed the bus to go home and had to walk our derrieres home in the scorching Texas heat, through farms, brushes, busy streets, and had to endure bites from mosquitoes that looked like they were on steroids! It was crazy, but we learned our lesson.
It was fun growing up with Natalie. Everyone always associated her with me and me with her. We were inseparable. Seriously. I remember when we got to high school, we were still best friends, but we were also starting to grow apart. We were similar as kids, but different as we got older.
While we were still close, we experienced and did a ton of things, things that we are not so proud of today. I was there through all of her boyfriends and she through mine. We were always there for each other no matter what. Then things changed. We stopped talking for a few years, but when we recently started talking again, I remembered how close we once were and knew that I couldn’t just forget my neighbor Natalie, the little Natalie who used to be glued to my side and would always fight with me about who was a better basketball player: Shaq or Hardaway? (I still think Shaq can beat up Hardaway any day. GO MAGICS!) One thing that has always stuck out about Natalie and it does not surprise me any bit about how she got to where she is at today, was her fascination with the computer and the internet. I remember when her brother got a computer, she would have my brothers and me come over and she would sneak on the cool Compaq Presario and show us how the internet worked (AOL dial-up days).
She was good with the computer and the web. And she still is. I am sincerely happy for her and truly believe she has followed her heart and her dream. To take on such a big risk, leaving everything she knew back in Texas to chase her dream. It’s rare for anyone to have the kind of courage she does. I have yet to meet her fiancé, but I know she’s made the right choice because she’s happy. And that’s all that should matter.
I am truly honored to be a part of their wedding. It’s my pleasure.
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