The first of Those Girls….

Tamara is my oldest friend. We met at Eisner Camp in 1992 and, since we were a part of the select few who lived in Massachusetts (she’s from Brookline), we consistently saw each other over the school year. We bonded over Indigo Girls concerts, trips to The Garage in Harvard Square, the ceramic dalmation in her room that would scare the shit out of me every time I woke up and saw it staring at me, When Harry Met Sally, delicious lox and bagel spreads on Sunday mornings in her kitchen, a leopard print bikini that she had to wear when she was Mowgli in Bonim’s production of The Jungle Book (I think I was an elephant or something…the story of my life), the tiny cot in her bedroom that her mother still calls Lisa’s Bed, reconciling after our first fight on our trip to Israel when she threw a pair of socks at my head, bickering over who got doubles of the good pictures from Banquet, faking our way out of Instructional Swim, and that oh-so-awkward sermon about prostitutes the rabbi gave at her bat mitzvah. Seeing as how we were always in the same bunk and had the same amazing counselors (Abby, Liz, Dara, Stefi, etc.), our lives were molded in very much the same way; for example, neither of us were ashamed to have worn flannel shirts for 4 years…it was just the cool thing to do.

And so today I announce (because she’s not cool enough to have her own blog where she could do it) that Tamara, my enthusiastic color war general with an empowering clipboard, is engaged! What makes the fact that the proposal happened in the UK so cool, other than the fact that I get to embarrass her on my blog by bringing up the leopard bikini, is that I was the first one to find out. And by first one to find out, I mean the first one to physically be in their presence when they announced it (confiding to friends and your girlfriend’s father before the trip doesn’t count). This is great for me because I am ALWAYS the last person to find out about things; I didn’t know my sister was pregnant until I went to visit her and this baby wouldn’t leave her alone, forcing me to awkwardly ask, “Hey Stacey…It’s really great to see you, but what’s with the strange baby?”

So here is to Tamara and Alex - a future psychologist and future veterinarian who will undoubtedly live in a happy home that will never be without a bowl of grapes, a Philadelphia Flyers jersey, and a copy of The Great Muppet Caper.

Lisa: How can you possibly not like the movie Elf?
Alex: I don’t like raccoons.

Apart, they are freakish:
Tamara eating haggis (minutes later she complained of the “grittiness” of the chopped up sheep hearts)

Alex trying to fit an entire loaf of bread in his mouth

But together they are perfect…