Taken in good ol' New York a couple weeks ago on a day trip with Loan, Saurabh and Thy. We paid homage to the Met, naturellement, and I went to my first Bodies Exhibit! We ended the evening with a lovely dinner, casual yet chic like only New York could do.My days are winding down toward two finals this coming week so I haven't much to update about unless you want to know about tropical parasites and hereditary diseases. But I wanted to update. So instead, I think I will revisit some old Xanga posts for a while. It's always interesting to remember who you were.
September 2007
I went to a wedding a few weeks ago for a guy I grew up with and hadn't talked to for 12 years. I remember going to his house with a friend when I was 8. He sat on the floor hunched over the coffee table, shaggy haired and wearing a faded purple t-shirt. He was taping a jigsaw puzzle together to frame and was the first person I'd seen do that. I remember thinking how weird it was as I always did my puzzles again and again that I could finish my 1000 pieces before 2 episodes of "Doug" had ended. What a waste of a puzzle, I thought. I stood in front of the restaurant, waiting for my parents to finish gabbing with some people they'd run into. Outside was this giant picture of the couple on a beach, her running away in a giant white dress and him chasing after her in less of an "I love you forever" sort of way and more of a "please don't leave me on our wedding day" manner. Why on earth would you choose this pose? And then to blow it up and display at the entrance? Immediately inside was a table of skinny grinning girls wearing all the makeup they owned. Behind was a scurry of people, talking and walking around shaking this hand and that. I stood alone and somewhat overwhelmed that I'll ask the groom where the groom is. I don't even know what he looks like. In fact, I don't even remember his last name. Then a guy came out of my periphery and before I could even say anything, he hugged me and said, "her name's Phuong too".
I was touched that he even remembered me. We had several small conversations throughout the night as he nudged me playfully, but that was it. I left without saying goodbye. We never exchanged numbers, and I'll probably never see him again. For most of my life, I've been a surprisingly sentimental person. I keep people in my life and in my thoughts for the sake of once strong friendships, but I've accepted that sometimes people grow away and apart. And that's okay. It doesn't make you a bad friend or a bad person. You obviously didn't have some steel-forged friendship, but you still had a good one and in the long run, I think that's enough.
