I don't know if I have had to actually say farewell to a close friend since I lost my best friend Sabyne-bean in 6th grade to the far away state of California. Yes, friends come and go, but it's usually a much more fluid process and you don't realize it has happened till it's too late to cry. Like moving away from college but not sure of exact plans for the future and the possibility of moving 3 blocks away from their older brother--Beth ;-). Or, like a friend moving out of state for a job but assuming they will be back to Minnesota because their family or significant other lives here--Meghan ;-).
This week yields an entirely different departure. My friend Charlotte is moving to Colorado, and when people say comfortingly to her, "Well, I'm sure you'll be back." she replies with a sad, "Not sure, we were only supposed to be in Minnesota 2 years and it was 6." She has no "blood" family here to come back to (unless you count us friends at the Y because we sweat and bleed together...). So this really is goodbye!!!? I don't know how to act. I haven't let it hit me yet because we keep delaying the inevitable...but they leave for good this weekend and tonight is the last time I will see her at the Y. The last time I had to say goodbye to Sabyne in 6th grade I delt with it by making a music video to Mariah Carey's "Always be my Baby" and changed the words to express how I felt. Charlotte, as much as I know you would love this...I am refraining ;-) Ha!
So as a grown up, what do I do? I feel like I will try and forget because that will be less painful...but how sad is that?! I have always said to people that I like change....but I am realizing that, no, I don't like change, I like new experiences...but I like things to be back to what I am used to in the end. I don't like thinking about how the dynamic at our movie nights will be different, I dread thinking about dress up days at the Y without anticipating her creative costumes, there is not much good I can come up with for this "change". How can I keep up that positive attitude that I pride myself on, when all I can see is negative?! Do I get to sulk and morn for a bit? Ug, I hate how that sounds but I don't know how else to react... this is foreign to me. I know, I know, "first world problems" as we say in movie group..... perspective, right? Deep down I know that...but I just don't know how to spin this in a positive direction, so I'm just going to whine.
One distraction I had the last week in preparing to say goodbye was coming up with creative mementos to send with our dear Charlotte. There are a million quirky, unique characteristics to this amazing girl, and one of them is her love of everything girly and fashionable. Her signature gym outfit is a colorful, sparkly tutu!! So naturally I wanted to make her one as one of her parting gifts. I thought it would be more meaningful if it could be more of a display tutu rather than wearing one to add to her collection of probably 45 that she owns. So I had some of our gym buddies sign a fabric strip and decorated a fun wooden hanger so she could hang it in her office in her new place!
Here is how I made the "Memory Tutu":
Materials:
1 stretchy white headband
1 wooden pant hanger
cloth fabric scraps (cut into about 2" X 14" strips)
tulle fabric scraps (cut into about 2" X 14" strips)
Directions:
1. Loop the middle of a tulle strip through a hole in the headband. Pull the rest of the strip through the other direction so it "ties" onto the headband. Continue around using about every other hole.
2. Repeat with fabric strips on the next row up.
3. Lastly, add the fabric strips that people have signed using a fabric marker to your "top" row. Mine was only about halfway up the headband.
4. Decorate the wooden hanger with permanent markers and you're done! The fabric will fray a little bit, but I didn't mind because it was more for decoration.
This week yields an entirely different departure. My friend Charlotte is moving to Colorado, and when people say comfortingly to her, "Well, I'm sure you'll be back." she replies with a sad, "Not sure, we were only supposed to be in Minnesota 2 years and it was 6." She has no "blood" family here to come back to (unless you count us friends at the Y because we sweat and bleed together...). So this really is goodbye!!!? I don't know how to act. I haven't let it hit me yet because we keep delaying the inevitable...but they leave for good this weekend and tonight is the last time I will see her at the Y. The last time I had to say goodbye to Sabyne in 6th grade I delt with it by making a music video to Mariah Carey's "Always be my Baby" and changed the words to express how I felt. Charlotte, as much as I know you would love this...I am refraining ;-) Ha!
So as a grown up, what do I do? I feel like I will try and forget because that will be less painful...but how sad is that?! I have always said to people that I like change....but I am realizing that, no, I don't like change, I like new experiences...but I like things to be back to what I am used to in the end. I don't like thinking about how the dynamic at our movie nights will be different, I dread thinking about dress up days at the Y without anticipating her creative costumes, there is not much good I can come up with for this "change". How can I keep up that positive attitude that I pride myself on, when all I can see is negative?! Do I get to sulk and morn for a bit? Ug, I hate how that sounds but I don't know how else to react... this is foreign to me. I know, I know, "first world problems" as we say in movie group..... perspective, right? Deep down I know that...but I just don't know how to spin this in a positive direction, so I'm just going to whine.
One distraction I had the last week in preparing to say goodbye was coming up with creative mementos to send with our dear Charlotte. There are a million quirky, unique characteristics to this amazing girl, and one of them is her love of everything girly and fashionable. Her signature gym outfit is a colorful, sparkly tutu!! So naturally I wanted to make her one as one of her parting gifts. I thought it would be more meaningful if it could be more of a display tutu rather than wearing one to add to her collection of probably 45 that she owns. So I had some of our gym buddies sign a fabric strip and decorated a fun wooden hanger so she could hang it in her office in her new place!
Here is how I made the "Memory Tutu":
Materials:
1 stretchy white headband
1 wooden pant hanger
cloth fabric scraps (cut into about 2" X 14" strips)
tulle fabric scraps (cut into about 2" X 14" strips)
Directions:
1. Loop the middle of a tulle strip through a hole in the headband. Pull the rest of the strip through the other direction so it "ties" onto the headband. Continue around using about every other hole.
2. Repeat with fabric strips on the next row up.
3. Lastly, add the fabric strips that people have signed using a fabric marker to your "top" row. Mine was only about halfway up the headband.
4. Decorate the wooden hanger with permanent markers and you're done! The fabric will fray a little bit, but I didn't mind because it was more for decoration.
Soooooo this seems like the final farewell...but I am not crying yet because she might still be at Turbo tonight, so I'll just continue to deny the inevitable ;-) I love you Charlotte-- you will be missed. :(