(Aileen and Janina graciously braving the heat at my Master of Public Administration graduation)
It could be the heat exhaustion wearing on my emotional barrier after spending hours in the blazing sun today at the San Francisco Pride Festival, but I doubt it. I have cried twice in the past hour, thanks to my beautiful sisters. The first occurrence was after a long hot shower, as I sat down to read my email. My little sister Aileen had written a nice summary about shopping, and I did not expect I would end up crying by the end of it :P
Aileen (AJ for short) lives 500 miles away from me, so you would assume that my participation in her bridesmaid dress buying process would be minimal. This could not be further from the truth. Between texts, emails, calls and an all too brief visit north, AJ has been the most meticulous and thoughtful sister I could ask for. She has literally tried on dozens of dresses and sent texts to me for input on styles, colors and materials.
Today, AJ found her dress. She had an amazing experience at Brides by Demetrios in San Diego, where she caused quite a stir regarding the "Will You Be My Bridesmaid?" card I made for her. I asked the bridesmaids to match their dresses according to the ribbon I used to make their cards. Apparently, giving cards is not a common practice quite yet because the salon had never seen it before. Aileen's experience is paraphrased below:
As I was filling out all the paperwork, Linda cut me a piece of the dress's sapphire swatch to keep. I took out your "Will You Be My Bridesmaid?" card to see how well it matched (basically perfectly!, btw). It was unbeknownst to me until today that these aren't common practice because the entire staff came over & admired it :D I'm totally serious when I say that the store manager got teary-eyed while she was looking at it. And Linda wanted to make one to display in the store as inspiration for other brides who may not have chosen bridesmaids yet :P And a saleslady with a thick New York accent as well as the rest of the staff had a good laugh at your kidnapping threat, haha! Basically, they're all your new biggest fans :DAs soon as I read that paragraph, even though AJ had already mentioned it briefly in a text, I started crying. I was already feeling delirious and emotional after my long day, so I pulled in a deep sigh to get myself together. Just as I felt calm again, I checked in on Facebook and saw that my older sister Janina had posted a video on my Facebook profile. However, it wasn't just any video:
I had absolutely NO clue that Janina recorded video on my graduation day. Her Nikon D90 is one of those sneaky dSLRs that does video and stills, so nobody else in my family mentioned seeing her record it. To say that I was a total mess is an understatement, I was so not prepared to cry again. LOL My graduation is such a precious and important memory to have, and I didn't even think to ask anyone to record it. Needless to say, I will be re-posting the video again when I do a synopsis of graduation day.
I'm behind on blogging because of the mad scramble Brian and I are doing to finish wedding tasks before he leaves for Search and Rescue school, but this blog needed to be written tonight so I could share my joy and gratitude immediately. I know I say this a lot, but I am so so so blessed.
5 comments:
FLO! i cried at the video, too! your sisters are sweet like american honey, awwwwwwww. so happy for you, what a year, huh?? <3
Reaching for a tissue. At both of my graduations, I had a huge cheering section; and it was, by far, one of the best feelings in the world, to hear that love, support, and pride. We're all very proud of you. Love.
Reaching for a tissue. At both of my graduations, I had a huge cheering section; and it was, by far, one of the best feelings in the world, to hear that love, support, and pride. We're all very proud of you. Love.
Janina made me hold the video camera, can you shed a tear because of me too? I hate being left out of these cool bonding moments. :p We are all happy for you and proud of you!
hahaha! i LOVE this post! for two main reasons:
the first is that i, like you my dear friend, am a cryer (crier?) you should have seen me in utah. at random times i would just spontaneously burst into tears of joy because i was so happy for one reason or another (ok, the champagne may have had something to do with it, too) i love you and i'm so happy that if you're going to cry this week, that it's the happy kind of crying!
secondly, when i read the message from your sister i had a "small world" moment. remember how i was bridesmaid in colin & jenna's wedding? well, those bridesmaid dresses came from demetrios in san diego. when jenna asked for our measurements, i went down to an alterations shop, got myself measured, and emailed them to her. she then, delivered all the girls' measurements to demetrios. a few days after i sent off my email, i got a phone call from a san diego number. a woman with a thick, THICK brooklyn accent asked me (quite curtly) "what are ya? squaaaair?" to which i replied - shocked - "um, no...i don't think so? what do you mean" ny accent lady said, "well, i'm lookin' at your may-ja-ments hee-a and well, ya aint a boy, is ya? cuz these may-ja-ments seem awfully squaaaaia"
so, needless to say, i tweaked my measurements and called her back! there is no doubt in my mind that this is the same new yorker that your sister mentioned in her demetrios story. funny, huh?
again, thank you for being beautiful you. i'm so glad to be your friend and when you are happy - i am happy!
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