Friday, June 14, 2013

The Rematch

It was twenty one years ago, that fateful day that I first took on The Becky. And I was completely shamed.

I have this best friend. Her name is Becky. You may know her better as The Becky. The indispensable friend. Twenty one years ago, she and I were in our first year of college. We had been best friends for many months, since the beginning of our senior year. We were nearly inseparable from the very start. I went on to start school at Utah State, she at the U. I thought I was very smart and knowledgeable being a university student now, one who took such classes as "Political Science I" and "Intro to Psychology."  And so when I found out that my friend, only 19 at the time, had met a man via another friend and they were writing letters and falling in love and were probably going to get married I thought I knew that she was being ridiculous. And when they did get engaged, I thought I knew that she was being an idiot. And I was furious. And SO jealous that my friend was being taken away. I had no idea how to express my anger, envy and....idiocy.

Well, I found a really good way to express all those things.

 I challenged her to an arm wrestle.

The Becky is very sweet, doesn't like loud rock music, has soft skin and a gentle nature. There was no WAY she could beat me in an arm wrestle. And suddenly I just had the desire to beat her at SOMETHING so that had to be it. An arm wrestling match. I called her out and she timidly agreed, bewildered as to why her grouchy friend was insisting on a throw-down but agreeing just to appease me. Becky looked scared (yes!) and balkingly assured me that there was no way she could beat me. But I insisted. (Did I mention the part about me being an idiot?)

We sat down across from each other at her mother's dining room table. We faced off, elbows set and fists gripped. She looked nervous. I was determined. We said GO and I instantly threw all my strength into my grip. As did she. And....she absolutely hurled my arm back, slamming my fist into the table, beating me almost instantly.

She looked shocked and I was speechless. I was furious and completely shamed by my stupidity. I had to leave. Becky gave me a confused pat on the back and told me she would call me later.

Just for the record, the man Becky married at the age of 19 is an absolute perfect match for her and they have had 20 years of a great marriage. He is a dear man and I love him and am grateful for the fantastic husband he is to my friend. I myself blundered around the dating world for five more years choosing all the wrong people to date, getting my heart plowed and plowing the hearts of others before finally being fished out of the dating swamp by Troy. Thank heavens.

And 20 years later I am still lucky enough to have The Becky in my life. We have laughed so many times about that funny day, both of us having much sympathy for my confused teenaged self. So funny. And I always thought it would be hilarious to have a rematch. You know, in honor of us turning 40 or something. So yesterday as we were hanging out together, letting our kids entertain each other while we ate lunch and talked like we always do, I brought it up. And we decided to go for it. Her daughter filmed it....

....only guess what.  I can not for the life of me get it to upload onto blogspot.  I will try.  Perhaps The Becky would prefer that I give up., but if not she needs to ask her very nice husband to help me.  I'll just say this.  It was a valiant fight.  But....she still killed me.  It took a little longer this time - I put up a much better fight but in the end, Becky's freakish strength prevailed.

Clearly, not much has changed. I am still an idiot. And I am just lucky I didn't wet my pants. I need to do some push-ups. Cue the montage music, I am going to start working on my arm-wrestling muscles and we are doing this again!! In 20 more years.

To The Becky, you can beat me in an arm wrestle any time. (Obviously.)  Just don't ever leave me.





1 comment:

The Becky said...

Oh Rachel! What you lack in arm strength, you make up for in heart. Thanks for being my bestest friend all these years!
--The Becky