Wedding bells

I'm heading down south tomorrow morning to attend the wedding of a very good college girlfriend and her groom-to-be.

This is going to be special for so many reasons.

Franny is starting her life with someone we all love, who complements her perfectly, and shares her same insatiable curiosity and wildly adventurous spirit.

Franny and I are very fortunate to have a group of unbelievable girlfriends from college. We're scattered all around the country and world, carrying on with our respective lives, but always looking forward to the next time we get to be together.

And the wedding is in Santa Barbara, where we all went to college, and where I always say Franny left her heart. A few years older and many years wiser, it will be fun to be back in our old stomping grounds. Sentimental value aside, Santa Barbara in itself is an unbelievable corner of the world.

I've known Franny for more than 10 years now, and we've had only one or two arguments.

One such memory involved our college innertube waterpolo team (yep, waterpolo in rubber tubes--don't knock it till you've tried it.) We had too many people playing one day, and someone needed to hang up their tube.

Franny's competitive. I'm competitive. Neither of us wanted to sit on the sidelines.

As I recall, Franny said, "I'm not goin' out."

I had no choice but to leave the game, scowling during my swim to the edge of the pool.

After the game, apologies were made, hugs were given, and Franny and I would continue our lives, fight-free, just as close as ever.

But in reflecting on this episode, I've realized that Franny's fire and passion are qualities that I really love about her.

So when she talked to me about Ryan, her roommate turned serious romantic interest, I had a decision to make. She said she was at her "breaking point," that she wanted to tell him how she really felt, at the risk of compromising their amazing friendship. Now, I knew better than to discourage her.

She wasn't goin' out.


Franny, I'm so proud to be able to stand beside you this weekend.

Congratulations.