Have you ever been friends with someone so long that part way through the friendship their name changed? .....and I don't mean their last name! (Although, in this case, that one did too.) Rebecca M. But I knew her back when she was Becky D.! I will always say that names are super important, and that a person should get to be called what they want to be called, but in "Becky's" case, I haven't been able to make the change and that is unlike me. (Heck I have a friend who I easily switched to calling Michelle after first knowing her as Gwen, you'd think that would be more of a stretch!)
Beck (okay - I CAN shorten it) met while we were both servers at Hurley's Roadhouse in Kensington. I was actually still a teenager at the time so this means it was in the 80'S! Becky was my worldly peer. A few years older than me, living in her own apartment in this cool neighbourhood (with a boy!), and with an eclectic, artistic style and taste. She didn't eat red meat back at the time when no one was doing that yet! And she chose not to have learned how to drive - which I also found super interesting having grown up in a small town where everyone gets their license the week they turn 16! She knew all the Hurley's regulars by name AND could bring them their drink of choice without even having to ask them. Of course, I now know this isn't Nobel Prize winning stuff but to the little girl who still lived at home with her parents in Cochrane, I thought she was kind of awesome. I still do!
Over the years, she has continued to inspire me with her go-getted-ness and resolve. While often from a distance I have been proud of Becky as she went back to university and got her Masters (in museum curation - or something cool like that?!). She decided to learn Spanish, has done some residencies in Mexico and is now fluent. (It might have been around the time she started working at a museum that she switched to Rebecca....) An animal lover to the core, she has rescued and nurtured numerous fur-babies of the canine, feline and lepine (bunny!) variety. She builds things, sews things and collects things. Boy, is she ever a good collector! "Back in the day" is was things to do with Disney, today it is vintage Blythe dolls. She is unexpected and fun yet can still be a little cliche and fun. I've been to Vegas with Becky thre
e times and seen the "Thunder From Down Under" (at least) twice. What sillier thing is there for a bunch of girls to do in Vegas than that?!
Some favourite Becky stories. She had a GREAT wedding - complete with both hers and my dog dressed up for the Baker Park ceremony, followed by a beautiful party at the Lougheed House complete with dancing lessons for ALL the guests! My very favourite though....dropping by on Boxing Day with a wrapped gift (candle holder). Before she opened it though, she showed me the "hideous" candle holder her boyfriend's parents gave her that she hated. Unbeknownst to her, the one in my wrapped parcel was the same! HaHa. She didn't open it until I left and called me mortified later that day. I thought it was hilarious and will never forget the story!
As she and I both changed addresses over time, we ended up living fairly close together in the northwest for awhile. And, when we were both single girls we may have tended to get together a little bit more often. Now, living across town precludes me from dragging my butt over to see her more than I should, but today we did enjoy lunch together on the rooftop patio of the establishment where we met. (New name, same longitutde and latitude.) It was fun to reflect back on what was, perhaps, a simpler time. What has been more fun, though, is evolving together yet remaining friends all the while. Would we go back to being in our early-20s? Perhaps for a visit (Vegas is different when you're 24) but the present is rich thanks to the experiences we've both shared having remained in each others' lives.
That's Becky! (But you should call her Rebecca!)
xo
No comments:
Post a Comment