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I once offhandedly mentioned that I wanted to pick out my own ring, something I have to look at every day, but there is something decidedly unromantic and a little bit depressing about having a symbol of love reduced to such scientific classifications - especially classifications focusing on imperfections.
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Emily Giffin |
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But that's the thing about the sucker punch; the sucker element hurts worse than the punch.
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Emily Giffin |
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I close my eyes, wondering whether we are ever truly blindsided by misfortune. Or, somehow, somewhere, in the form of empathy or worry or a premonition deep within ourselves, do we feel it coming?
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heart-of-the-matter
misfortune
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Emily Giffin |
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let those surface issues go, to value content over form.
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Emily Giffin |
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Sorrow comes with so many defense mechanisms. You have your shock, your denial, your getting wasted, your cracking jokes, and your religion. You also have the old standby catchall--the blind belief in fate, the whole "things happening for a reason" drill. But my personal favorite defense has always been anger, with its trusty offshoots of self-righteous indignation, bitterness, and resentment."
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baby-proof
bitter
emily-giffin
sad
sorrow
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Emily Giffin |
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I also appreciate Amy's forty-something perspective that the thirties are a grind for many, and motherhood isn't the constantly blissful journey everyone thinks it will be when they attend their pink or blue or yellow baby shower.
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Emily Giffin |
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I guess she's been like this since her arrival here, maybe even our whole lives, but sometimes when you know someone well, you don't see them as they really are. So I honestly think I've managed to ignore this fundamental part of her personality, perhaps not wanting to see my closest friend in this light.
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Emily Giffin |
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never had a good gut feeling. It wasn't so much that I didn't have faith in my team, but that I maintained the truest fans always reverted to a doomsday position
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Emily Giffin |
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that hard work, honesty, and integrity always paid off in the end, while skating by on your looks was somehow an offense. And like that day playing psychiatrist, I occasionally worried that she was right.
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Emily Giffin |
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wasn't so much that I didn't have faith in my team, but that I maintained the truest fans always reverted to a doomsday position in the same way that parents always worried about tragedy befalling their children.
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Emily Giffin |
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On a subconscious level, I subscribe to the notion that if you worry about something, it is somehow less likely to happen. Well, I am here to say that it doesn't work like that. The very thing you fear the most can still happen anyway. And when it does, you feel that much more cheated for having feared it in the first place.
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Emily Giffin |
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Cremation was definitely the way to go. It was the way I wanted to go, rather than risk the possibility of going out on a bad-hair day.
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Emily Giffin |
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reckless abandon and know that there will be someone
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Emily Giffin |
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We have no relationship without honesty. - by Claude
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honesty-love
love-and-relationships
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Emily Giffin |
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Too often in our culture of BlackBerrys and cell phones, people are disengaged and disconnected and distracted from their immediate surroundings.
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Emily Giffin |
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Still, I don't like his use of the word fine. I want to be better than fine.
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Emily Giffin |
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a bit of a dirty fighter, quick with cutting words that he later regrets and doesn't really mean. Then again, I wonder if there isn't always a grain of truth in them, somewhere
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words
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Emily Giffin |
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Would they retreat or move forward? Could they do this thing they were on the verge of doing? Did they have it in them to make a wrong decision just because it felt right?
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Emily Giffin |
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That although I love Nick, on most days I don't think he lassoed the moon
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Emily Giffin |
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Love, not as a surge of passion, but as a choice to commit to something, someone, no matter what obstacles or temptations stand in the way. And maybe making that choice, again and again, day in and day out, year after year, says more about love than never having a choice to make at all.
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love
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Emily Giffin |
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Sometimes you get the bead. Sometimes the bear get you. - Coach Carr
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Emily Giffin |
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I feel as if they are putting on a show... It is always that way when you are in a group and someone decides to go for a swim or walk to the water. The ocean is like a giant stage. It is natural that the others watch, if only for a moment.
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Emily Giffin |
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grocery lists. That was back when I thought my
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Emily Giffin |
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When you are in a relationship, you are aware that it might end. You might grow apart, find someone else, simply fall out of love. But a friendship isn't a zero-sum game, and as such, you assume that it will last forever, especially an old friendship. You take its permanence for granted, which might be the very thing so dear about it.
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Emily Giffin |
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It's not about the actors, though, Peter. That's the thing. It's about the writing.
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Emily Giffin |
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back at Rachel, thinking that she got it just right. Love and friendship. They are what make us who we are, and what can change us, if we let them.
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Emily Giffin |
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Even if he is my best friend in theory, I sometimes feel as if I share more of my life with Cate and April and even Rachel - at least when it comes to the everyday matters that comprise my life - from the alive of cheesecake I regret eating to the killer sunglasses I found on sale to the adorable thing Ruby said or Frank did. Eventually, I get around to telling Nick this stuff, too, if it's still relevant or pressing when were finally toget..
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Emily Giffin |
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That's unfortunate," I say, choosing my words carefully and realizing that this might be the hallmark of a genuine friendship: how freely you speak."
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Emily Giffin |
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Even if he is my best friend in theory, I sometimes feel as if I share more of my life with Cate and April and even Rachel - at least when it comes to the everyday matters that comprise my life - from the slice of cheesecake I regret eating to the killer sunglasses I found on sale to the adorable thing Ruby said or Frank did. Eventually, I get around to telling Nick this stuff, too, if it's still relevant or pressing when we're finally toge..
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Emily Giffin |
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But at the time, I honestly didn't think I was hurting anyone, not even myself. I didn't think much at all, in fact. Yes, I was gorgeous and lucky in love, but I truly believed that I was also a decent person who deserved her good fortune.
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Emily Giffin |
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It's the feeling of belonging. Right here where I am. In this house. With my parents and Charlotte. The people who know all my stories, from the beginning. The people who know me.
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Emily Giffin |
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The feeling of leaving, even when you don't want to. The feeling that sometimes things just can't be fixed.
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Emily Giffin |
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A feeling that I know so little about the world. And maybe the tiniest bit of excitement that there are real possibilities in life, too.
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Emily Giffin |
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You can't go back," he says. "Just look forward. You're doing the right thing now."
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Emily Giffin |
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elated.") And anytime he had to question someone's loyalty."
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Emily Giffin |
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I've often let my goals supersede the journey--and the love of what I'm doing. A constant battle to stay in control, get to the next level, ensure that my life stays perfectly, carefully scripted.
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Emily Giffin |
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and then realize it's not Peter I miss, but the idea of what I once thought we shared.
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Emily Giffin |
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I desperately want to feel that way again. To be in a relationship that I'm not trying to script or water down. It's about wanting something real--even if it's messy and complicated.
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Emily Giffin |
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prescription for a prenatal vitamin, as you will need
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Emily Giffin |
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right--secrets and lies are really the same thing,
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Emily Giffin |
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But he was a golden child, too good for the world.
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Emily Giffin |
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I close my eyes, inhale, and feel a rush of heat and energy that takes my breath away. It is the feeling of wanting something so much that it borders on an actual need, and the power and urgency of this need overwhelms me.
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Emily Giffin |
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I know by now that you can't control your life, no matter how hard you try. That inevitably people leave and disappoint and die. But there is one constant, one thing you can always count on: that not only does love come first, but in the end, it is the only thing that remains.
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Emily Giffin |
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The late afternoon sun highlighted all her lines and wrinkles, making her look older than I thought of her as. Then again, she probably was in her early seventies by now, which somehow seemed so much older than one's late sixties.
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Emily Giffin |