My friend Amanda
About a month ago, when I should have been studying for the bar exam, I instead went on a blind date. It did not go well. After the date, I immediately called my friend Amanda, told her what happened, and then said "I've had it with this dating bullshit, will you marry me?" I was joking, but I would have married her in a heartbeat if we were together.
I've known Amanda since high school, I had a crush on her then but never did anything about it. We stayed in touch for about a year after highschool, and since I didn't have to see her everyday I finally told her I had a crush on her... after I was already dating another girl at the time so that I couldn't do anything about it, of course. That was the summer of 2002. I lost touch with Amanda after that, changed my cell phone number at some point and her number didn't make it over in one of the phone swaps and my friend Amanda just faded to a pleasant memory.
Until last summer. She got in contact with me through myspace, which is funny, because I had literally forgotten that I even had a myspace page. I found out she was living in Denver, which was great, because I was going to be in Denver in a few months for a UT football game. We traded phone numbers, and when we talked on the phone for the first time in 6 years, it was like we never lost touch. It was amazing. We met up when I was in Denver, I got way too wasted the first night to put any moves on her like I meant to - instead I threw up when we got back to her apartment, then kissed her as a joke to gross her out, then passed out on her couch. Romantic. For whatever reason, she looked past that and still was happy to see me in the morning.
She came to Austin in February, when I was still sporting my ridiculous mustache, and was my date to Law Prom. I finally went to prom with her, 8 years after our senior year of high school. We shared a room at the Hyatt that I had won during the law school's Halloween Party, and I made sure not to throw up this time. A decade after I first had a crush on her. It was worth the wait. We had to cut the sightseeing and such short, however, when she found out that her grandfather had suffered a heart attack. I drove her down to Castroville, where her grandparents still live, and she was able to see her grandfather who was back home after being released from the hospital. She kept apologizing for ruining the weekend by having to spend an entire day out of Austin, but I wouldn't hear anything of it. Who knew how much longer she had to see her grandfather? And besides I knew there'd be other weekends. In fact, I was planning to come visit her in Denver a month after that, because she wanted to teach me how to snowboard. Unfortunately, I'm bad at budgeting, and my student loans weren't enough to cover a ticket up to visit her. She offered to buy my ticket, but I refused, because I didn't think that was fair - I hadn't bought her's to come see me.
I'm not sure what exactly we had after that. It was a relationship of sorts, but she lived in Denver, I lived in Austin. Neither of us were into any sort of real long distance relationship, but we kept in touch. We talked on the phone once or twice a week at the max, texted each other at random times, etc. We kept making plans to come see the other person that never panned out, and then I asked her to marry me after that horrible date. She said yes, and then we proceeded to get in an argument of whether she would move here or if I would move there. We compromised and said she'd move here after she finished her school next year, and after I had practiced enough to earn reciprocity with the Colorado Bar I was going to open a Denver office of my law firm. We never quite agreed on kids, I suggested that we should just be irresponsible and see what happened, she wanted to adopt, but we agreed to practice no matter what. It was a fun conversation.
We talked a lot in the past month or so, she called me to wish me luck on the bar exam each day, and we were making plans for her to come to Austin again. I was going to pay for her plane ticket this time. I just talked to her on Saturday night, while I was in Chicago for a friend's bachelor party. She told me to be careful. I told her "olive juice you" It's a joke from Family Guy. She laughed and told me "olive juice you too"
My friend Amanda died on Sunday. She fell off a balcony, or a roof, I'm not sure of the details, while hanging out with some friends after work in Denver. They say she died instantly on impact.
My brain knows she's gone, but my heart hasn't admitted it yet.
I've known Amanda since high school, I had a crush on her then but never did anything about it. We stayed in touch for about a year after highschool, and since I didn't have to see her everyday I finally told her I had a crush on her... after I was already dating another girl at the time so that I couldn't do anything about it, of course. That was the summer of 2002. I lost touch with Amanda after that, changed my cell phone number at some point and her number didn't make it over in one of the phone swaps and my friend Amanda just faded to a pleasant memory.
Until last summer. She got in contact with me through myspace, which is funny, because I had literally forgotten that I even had a myspace page. I found out she was living in Denver, which was great, because I was going to be in Denver in a few months for a UT football game. We traded phone numbers, and when we talked on the phone for the first time in 6 years, it was like we never lost touch. It was amazing. We met up when I was in Denver, I got way too wasted the first night to put any moves on her like I meant to - instead I threw up when we got back to her apartment, then kissed her as a joke to gross her out, then passed out on her couch. Romantic. For whatever reason, she looked past that and still was happy to see me in the morning.
She came to Austin in February, when I was still sporting my ridiculous mustache, and was my date to Law Prom. I finally went to prom with her, 8 years after our senior year of high school. We shared a room at the Hyatt that I had won during the law school's Halloween Party, and I made sure not to throw up this time. A decade after I first had a crush on her. It was worth the wait. We had to cut the sightseeing and such short, however, when she found out that her grandfather had suffered a heart attack. I drove her down to Castroville, where her grandparents still live, and she was able to see her grandfather who was back home after being released from the hospital. She kept apologizing for ruining the weekend by having to spend an entire day out of Austin, but I wouldn't hear anything of it. Who knew how much longer she had to see her grandfather? And besides I knew there'd be other weekends. In fact, I was planning to come visit her in Denver a month after that, because she wanted to teach me how to snowboard. Unfortunately, I'm bad at budgeting, and my student loans weren't enough to cover a ticket up to visit her. She offered to buy my ticket, but I refused, because I didn't think that was fair - I hadn't bought her's to come see me.
I'm not sure what exactly we had after that. It was a relationship of sorts, but she lived in Denver, I lived in Austin. Neither of us were into any sort of real long distance relationship, but we kept in touch. We talked on the phone once or twice a week at the max, texted each other at random times, etc. We kept making plans to come see the other person that never panned out, and then I asked her to marry me after that horrible date. She said yes, and then we proceeded to get in an argument of whether she would move here or if I would move there. We compromised and said she'd move here after she finished her school next year, and after I had practiced enough to earn reciprocity with the Colorado Bar I was going to open a Denver office of my law firm. We never quite agreed on kids, I suggested that we should just be irresponsible and see what happened, she wanted to adopt, but we agreed to practice no matter what. It was a fun conversation.
We talked a lot in the past month or so, she called me to wish me luck on the bar exam each day, and we were making plans for her to come to Austin again. I was going to pay for her plane ticket this time. I just talked to her on Saturday night, while I was in Chicago for a friend's bachelor party. She told me to be careful. I told her "olive juice you" It's a joke from Family Guy. She laughed and told me "olive juice you too"
My friend Amanda died on Sunday. She fell off a balcony, or a roof, I'm not sure of the details, while hanging out with some friends after work in Denver. They say she died instantly on impact.
My brain knows she's gone, but my heart hasn't admitted it yet.