My Carmen is engaged!!!

My Carmen is engaged! Well, not the little Carmen who is mine in the genetic sense, but my big Carmen after whom my little Carmen was named!  We met up with her briefly this past January when Renai was getting married, and Carmen had been dating this nice guy named James for a while.  He's going to be a nuclear engineer for the navy (!) and she says they'll probably get married some time next year.

In Texas.

Woot.

CJ (what I called her when we were growing up) moved to Phoenix from Texas some time in elementary school.  I can't remember if she had lived in Dallas or what, but it was one of those places where they've all got hillbilly accents. ;)

I was kind of a dork in elementary school (who wasn't?) and had a hard time making friends.  One day in sixth grade, a new girl was entering our Honors Lit class and I overheard another girl from our class (Carrie Rice, your name will forever live in infamy in my family) saying things to the new girl like, "Oh, that's Kamis.  She's weird, she's a b*tch, nobody likes her, don't bother talking to her."  WHAT KIND OF SIXTH GRADER TALKS LIKE THAT?!  I was thinking, "Oh, how great, another person I barely know gossiping about me right in front of me.  I used to think you were cute, too."  The next thing I know, the new girl is turning to me and saying, "Hey, Kamis!" and we've pretty much been best friends ever since.

We played Donkey Kong and The Sims together, and swam and played make-believe on some big plot of land her stepdad owned, and went to the Renaissance Fair and basically had a fabulous friendship together.  That's why I named my firstborn after her ... she was the most fun, amazing friend I've ever had.  No drama.  No fights.  No nothin'.  Just plain awesomeness.  In fact, one day my mom pulled me aside and said, "I really like your friend CJ.  You are always so happy and so nice to your siblings after you play with her."  I feel so lucky to have her as a friend!!

So yeah.  I'm very excited for her.  Too bad there are no navy posts in Texas.

Some time, after I finish my Disneyland story, I will write a post about some of the people I secretly adore.  There are lots of them. :)  I guess this also means I need to go back and see if I managed to write anything about Renai's wedding and hanging out with CJ in January ...