Kiss from a 'Rose'

SO much to say on her, but I'll keep it to this. Out of everyone in this world that is in my life, Laura is the one I want to impress the most. I care deeply about all my friends in different ways, and I'll probably share different angles on them in future, but this is about Laura. She is a third of our trio affectionately known as the "Golden Girls." Julie is Blanche, Laura is Rose and I'm so obviously Dorothy. These characters fit our personalities and our relationship very well and we hope to one day be old sitting around a kitchen table gossiping and sharing our lives just as we do today. The Golden Girls theme song played during mine and Julie's speech at Laura's wedding (but we walked to the podium to Eminem's "2 trailor parks girls go round the outside, round the outside...")
Laura is the kindest, most loving human being anyone will ever come across, and I am privileged to be able to say that she's one of my absolute best friends in the world. It's been this way for many many years and will be this way for the rest of our precious lives, I have no doubt about that fact. In high school, Laura was a very sweet, kind, popular girl (and she'll be sooo embarassed that I wrote that) which is kind of an oxymoron when referring to 'popular girls'! She had many friends, had a great social circle, and really cute boys after her constantly. Now, any of us that have been through high school knows kids can be cruel. There was one guy in particular who got picked on more than most. Everyone ridiculed this kid, unfortunately I think every school has the kids that get picked on more than others. This was that kid. Laura was one of the first of my friends in high school to have her own car, a tricked out white tracker (aptly named 'girlfriend'). Laura used to pass this boy in the mornings walking as she drove to school. On cold days, she would pull beside him and offer him a ride, but from what I remember, he always refused her. You see, to this boy, he would assume that a girl like Laura was simply doing it to make fun of him, or to then drive off on him laughing once he accepted. He didn't know Laura. She did this simply because it was cold, and she felt so bad for this kid that others made fun of him, he seemed like such a nice guy, personally I think she had must've had a 'geek crush' on him or something, I just didn't understand it. This is a purrrrfect example of Laura's mentality (oops, and mine). She's just always been like that, and that has not changed the whole time I've known her. That type of kindness is foreign to me (to this day I see my own neighbour walking around and have never offered her a ride). I'm going to comment on something else too, but unfortunately, unless you're in my immediate family or Laura's this won't make any sense to you, but Laura did something for me after I got diagnosed that I am not going to elaborate on, but let's call it the single most selfless gesture I'd ever been on the receiving end of, and against all my protests and fits, she did it for me anyway. She was taking a stand against me and was prepared to battle me on this, and stood her ground until I relented. She was so passionate about helping me with something that she knew I wouldn't stand for, and I know she went through anxiety leading up to "the gesture" but she did in fact win that fight, through my tears and frustrations that she wouldn't just leave it alone. Basically Laura made life easy for me during a tough time in a unique way, and we'll leave it at that. Laura is the girl that would donate a big sum of money anonymously, just because it would help, not for any personal recognition. I don't know how she lives her life so selflessly, it's such a foreign concept to me, yet I see it from her time and again. Julie and I constantly make fun of her for it, constantly, but really we're just both jealous that we don't possess those qualities. Sorry, Jules ha ha, but I know you won't mind me saying that! She's also a champion of fundraising for breast cancer, and this has nothing to do with her best friend getting diagnosed. It's always been this way. Every year she walks for breast cancer. I've been invited to walk with her every year and have never done it but she's never pressured me. Of course now she has a walking partner for all years to come! I'm referring to the Weekend to End Breast Cancer walk held in September in Toronto to support Princess Margaret (my hospital). You need to raise 2k to be able to walk, so she holds a huge pool party to raise the money not only for her to walk, but also for all the people that agree to walk with her. She does this for charity, for a cause that is close to her and her families heart as they've dealt with loss because of it. She does it despite comments like "why can't she just have a pool party instead of asking people for money" or "can't we ever have a party without it being about cancer?" She hears and is subjected to these abhorrent comments and does it anyway. She holds a huge hockey fundraiser every year as well to raise money for breast cancer. This is a huge undertaking and proves to be very stressful for her as there are a lot of moving parts when organizing something of that stature, but she does it and she does it by herself. Last year, she sheepishly asked me for a little assistance, which I'm sure was hard for her to do. Would I be able to maybe help her with getting together some prizes for the raffle? Sure, I'd do that for her. That I guess is my forte. I don't find contacting people/businesses I don't know difficult, I do it for work all the time, and I also like organizing events, and can say that I'm pretty good at it as I've had a lot of practice. In fact, that's what I've always wanted to do (event planning) so sure I can help her with this, it was coming up a few weeks after she asked me, I remember being at work when she asked and told her I'd definitely find her some amazing prizes for the raffle. I remember hearing her sigh of relief. I knew she'd be really grateful to have me help her with that, and she could count on me, I'm one of her best friends! Well, not only did I completely forget to do anything as far as prizes for her, I forgot the day of the event and I missed it. This is unfortunately typical of me (I don't remember birthdays either). I'd love to say otherwise and am working on changing that, but that doesn't make that statement any less true. I commit to things that I forget about all the time. I really would have had no problem doing this for her, but I couldn't do something as simple as put that in my calendar to remind me. Laura has never -not even for a second- made me feel bad about that. That's not her style. She would have justified my actions in her head and it would've been about me already being too busy and she may have even chastised herself for even asking me about to help in the first place. Unbelievable isn't it? I'm not exaggerating and any of you that know her will attest to this.
Well Laura, you now have my undivided attention for all fund-raising events, isn't it unfortunate that it took me getting this disease myself to help you? It's not a grand gesture now, it could've been had I helped you last year before my diagnosis but it's not now, that's something I have to live with about myself. It changes nothing about the fact that going forward, you and I are going to be an unbelieveable fund-raising team and are going to hold the most fabulous events and fund-raisers in the future. Your hockey fund-raiser is going to be a breeze for you because you now have me championing this alongside you and I'll handle all those aspects that you find difficult and I find fun and vice versa.

This is my solemn promise to you and one that I will keep this time.

Which brings me to last night. So I've just had a good cry about Jen's book, been touched very deeply by L's message to me, and now Laura's calling. "Oh good, you answered! Do you have plans for your birthday yet?" My 30th birthday is December 8th, it's on a Saturday a few months away. No, no plans yet. "Okay, you're spending it with me. My boss handed me 2 platinum seats to the leafs game the night of your birthday so I'm taking you." WOOOO HOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! I never get to go to Leaf games! Doing a happy dance. But that's not all, these aren't just any tickets. These are section 109 row 4 tickets, platinum tickets; 4 rows from centre ice tickets; Toronto Leafs against Boston Bruin tickets! Great tickets to have! So so soooo excited!!! I cannot think of a better way to spend my 30th birthday! And again, going with the everything happens for a reason angle, I was supposed to be in Vegas that weekend and wouldn't have been able to go with her which would have been sorely disappointing. But now, no plans, this is what I am doing for my birthday now, yay yay yay!!! Oh, and to Laura's husband Bruce, thanks for not being mad at us that I get to go and you don't. And Laura said (but probably lied!) that you were fine with it and even encouraged her to take me so *mwah*! Hee hee! :)