Some of the best people I have met in my life have been from simple blips in time, created out of the strangest opportunities. Seriously–some of the most important parts from my life come from moments that were so unexpected, it is like they weren’t even indented to exist until the moment was just right.

 

That is the case with one of my gal pals, Heidi. I had left a stable but stressful job at a small almost-hometown school; city-raised Heidi landed here after a weird mismanaged voicemail message (if I am remembering correctly). That brought us together in the superintendent’s office to sign out contracts that August. While I was super casual with my navy ruffle t-shirt and green cardigan paired with jeans, she was classic: soft teal long sleeve shirt, classic pearls that are still symbolically her, and a pair of GAP grey pinstriped trousers…just like the ones I contemplated wearing before I gave into the comfy demands of denim.

 

At that point, I knew we would be friends.

 

And we were friends, school neighbors, creamer aficionados, unofficial co-presidents of the local chapter Ben & Jerry’s fan club. We crammed a ton of life into the three years she was up in the northland. We huddled around the Keurig and discussed our weekends/weeknights/coaching obligations (Heidi is the always-an-athlete of my friends, coaching those sports accordingly; I was a wannabe fine artists caught on stage with drama productions or behind a podium with speech and debate). The chats turned into dinner engagements with evolved into our much-revered girls’ nights. Heidi started running, which started me “running,” leading us to participate multiple half-marathons together. We made an awesome November weekend of it one time as we traveled south to Iowa to participate in the largest cross country race.

 

This weekend was made doubly awesome by a guy named Josh. Heidi didn’t know him yet—she didn’t meet him that weekend or even the next—but he waiting out there.

 

Heidi found him on the supposed last day of the world, and in a way, it was the end of the world as Heidi knew it; from that point on, one of my favorite shes was now a we. A date on December 21, 2012 led to another and another. After exactly two years worth of wining, dining, occasional dancing, and multiple Marvel movies, an engagement came.

 

That engagement is what brought us together again a couple Saturdays ago. Heidi’s fun and fantastic family threw the cutest Hawaiian-themed bridal shower, inspired by the pending June nuptials in Maui, allowing those of us who cannot attend the opportunity to bask in Heidi’s marital bliss with a little love of the islands. Games, giggles, and girlie thoughts ensued as promised by the traditions of this sort of party, and it was an uplifting way to spend an early May afternoon.