I woke up at 4:38 am this morning and solved my Groom’s party dilemma. For those that don’t know or are confused about life. I am getting married. I have 3 groomsmen picked and I have one more to go. There’s nothing that sucks more than choosing between friends. But then it hit me. There is only one person it should be: Michael McCarthy.

Surprised? I was too. It came to me in a dream. I believe your brain uses dreams to weed through all the leftover thoughts while you sleep. Typically I dream about people that I haven’t seen in a long while. I assume this is happening because my brain is deciding I don’t need that information any longer. But I do tend to stumble upon some interesting memories during these journeys.

Let me tell you the story of Mike and I. I moved to Oakdale when I was 6. I met 2 people the first day my family was moving in: Mike and Eric. Eric was a year older than both Mike and I. Eric was also quite pompous, even at 6. Over the next 13 years Mike and I became good friends. I have friends, not many, but some. Mike was my best friend. He was my only close friend for quite some time.

High school came and girls, interests, and other things came between us. We still stayed good friends but not as close as we once were. He was one the fringe of Jockness which was reason enough for me to distance myself from him. Shallow, yes. But I had my reasons.

The fateful night was at a party. I believe I was 19, MAYBE 20. I was standing in the kitchen listening to a couple girls chat about Mike’s girlfriend. Mike had been dating this girl for 2-3 years. I can’t remember. Someone mentioned that Mike’s girlfriend had been bragging that she was staying over at some other guy’s apartment while at college. Now I had some juicy gossip, I had to find someone to tell.

I headed out of the kitchen into the living room and plopped down next to Doug. Doug was a good guy, not always the brightest of folk. But he was entertaining to say the least. Doug was a close friend of Mike’s. Closer then Mike and I were at the time. They played the same sports, hung out, and whatnot. Being not entirely with it, I told Doug the story of Mike’s girlfriend. About 5 minutes later, I think I was still sitting on the couch, my friendship with Mike ended. In the amount of time it takes to snap fingers my best friend had marked me as his mortal enemy.

To this day I live with that story. It’s haunted me for 3 years. I’m not proud of what I did. I still stand by the comments I made to Doug. She was sleeping around. The girl ended up with the guy she was staying with after her relationship with Mike ended. But what kind of friend was I if I was spreading rumors?

It was definitely one of my not so shiny moments.

So if any of you see Mike around. Let him know that I want him in my wedding.