emily violet

...is the most beautiful wonderful best friend anyone could ever ask for. I have remarkable, inspirational friends. They're all going to make really great mothers too (some of them already are).


Emily and I have had so many adventures over the years-- we were both so klutzy as kids. We'd do somersaults into furniture, fall down stairs, dance like spazzes. We'd sit in her driveway with the back hatch of her parents suburban open, just hanging out, doing nothing or listening to the car stereo, pretending we were old enough to drive.


It was with Emily, not even my dad, when I first listened to the Beatles "White Album." It was at her house, on the golf course in her back yard where I had my first kiss. And where I learned to play pool. And to make a perfect salad. And to appreciate good coffee. And good bed linens. And to laugh with total freedom and lack of concern for what anyone thought about it. And to write long letters-- my first one was to her when we were in a fight, but I never gave it to her.


 For a long stretch in junior high and high school, we were indistinguishable on the phone. We sounded alike, our mannerisms were the same, our humor the same.


At her wedding, I quoted my favorite passage from A Separate Peace (which, along with A Prayer For Owen Meany, are the best novels about friendship ever written) where Gene realizes that Phineas had never seen any separation between the two of them. That he saw Gene as an extension of himself. Which has always been true for me of Em. Her happiness is my happiness and her struggles I share with her too.


The lovely Corinne took these amazing photos of Emily and TL. They made my day!