A bridal blast from the past

The envelope arrived the other day, a small yellow square with my full name and address pre-printed in computer type with an anonymous return address in the western suburbs, an address I did not recognize.

Since this looked very much like one of those junk mail pieces that's disguised as a personal letter, I almost threw it away.

Almost.

Imagine my surprise when I opened it and found an invitation to a bridal shower. The guest of honor is a woman with whom I've had no contact for about two years despite the fact that she lives two miles from me. The shower is being given by women I've never met.

The bride and I worked together for a total of one year and that was almost nine years ago. We were friends after that, hitting bars and parties. But that was years ago and our relationship has dwindled to the point that our only contact is the Christmas newsletter that she sends me every year.

(I have a thing about single people sending out newsletters, but that's a post for another time.)

A few months ago, I received a save-the-date card for her wedding. Geez! You can tell she used to be an event planner. I was pretty surprised at that, but it seems like weddings have (for some people, at least) become a reunion of sorts -- a chance to catch up with distant cousins, former coworkers, grammar school classmates and such.

While weddings have become a mob scene, I've always thought the bridal shower was limited to the inner posse, immediate family and closest friends.

I contacted a friend of mine whom I met when we both worked with the bride. Apparently, she received the save-the-date card, too, although she lives out of state. She's trying to plan a trip to Chicago to coincide with the wedding, so I guess they've kept in touch.

Why was I invited? It couldn't be a situation where the bride is trying to collect gifts from everyone she's ever met. Mommy and Daddy are doctors and they've taken the bride and her brother on wonderful family holidays all over the world.

Nope, it's not about money.

Maybe I'm underestimating the importance of our friendship?

Close, personal friends...or not

There are people out there, perhaps you're one of them, who watch reality TV shows and construct imaginary personal relationships with the characters on the show. They want to ask them, "Why did you sleep with so-and-so?" or "I can't believe you said that?!"

You are absolutely certain that the feeling is mutual and these characters are your best friends. You'd meet for coffee or a beer after work, sharing sob stories of shitty love lives. You'd go shopping together, know their kids' names and share the latest new restaurant or club info.

So, here I am, talking about travel in Australia with Ryan Dempster. The red-haired Cubs pitcher tells me what cities he's seen and where he went diving and bungee-jumping. I ask him if he had time to climb the Sydney Harbor Bridge (he did).

Suddenly, he sticks out his hand, "Hi, I'm Ryan."

"Oh, geez. Um, yeah, hi, I'm ..."

I'm one of those...with the Cubs.

Having survived the bitter cold for the Cubs' home opener on Friday, and the wedding in North Carolina on Saturday, I joined Firecracker, Cat and FC2 for Sunday's series finale with the rat-bastard St. Louis Cardinals.

After the Cubs finished trashing the Cardinals to open the Wrigley Field season, several of the players walked down the street to one of the local watering holes. Firecracker and I stood outside the park, amazed that these local celebrities would WALK! among the crowds! to a public bar!

"Wanna get a drink?" I asked Firecracker, knowing full well the answer.

That's how we met the boys.