Goomba | Week 37 Weight Loss

Day 258. 163 pounds lost.

I don’t normally name drop on my blog, but today I decided it was something I needed to do. For those of you who don’t know one of my closest friends, I affectionately call him “Goomba.” He also happens to be my business partner. We spend countless hours together every day, but he is my closest guy friend in the world. Why the name “Goomba”? He actually called me this in those first early months when I moved here. I didn’t know what it meant so I looked it up on Urban Dictionary. It said “Gangsta.” I thought to myself at the time “Wow, he thinks I’m Gangsta. Right on”……. It wasn’t until months later when I learned this was actually the little character in Super Mario Brothers that is the first enemy that Mario and Luigi come across that always seems to get his ass kicked. This was actually what he meant. Who knew? That name stuck and we are both known as “Goomba” to each other.

In the early months of 2009, I was going through one of the toughest times of my life. I had just called off my wedding, and I had also decided that I didn’t want to be a lawyer anymore. Grad school was sucking, my relationship was in shambles, I hated Texas, and I really couldn’t think of a single thing that was going right. I have been through many lows, but this was definitely one of the lowest.  Things got so bad one night that I walked into my bathroom, I pulled open the medicine cabinet and was trying to calculate through the myriad of orange bottles what it might take to make the pain go away. I was embarrassed that I would even think such things that I went to bed crying that night – praying to God that he would send me some kind of sign that this wasn’t how it was supposed to go down. I’ve prayed a couple times like this in my life; just hours and hours of praying until I finally fell asleep. The very next day as fate would have it, I met Goomba, and the rest is history. I firmly believe that he saved my life and that he was meant to be a part of it.

Things haven’t always been easy. We are almost 15 years apart so even from a friendship level, we come from different generations, and obviously, we have different perspectives. Our life experiences have been much different, but at the same time, we have managed to stick together as the best of friends. We fight over radio stations, we have different design styles, he likes meat on his pizza (*barf sound*)…..  but somehow we always seem to compromise.

When life got difficult, and I got too heavy to do things, Goomba was the one always volunteering to do the hard things for me which might seem easy for most people but they got too difficult. He was always happy to pick up the groceries, do my running around, mow the lawn and anything else that I needed help with. He has always been my ear when I was sad and needed someone to talk too and many times the voice of reason.

These last nine months have been hard. There has been some huge schedule adjustments as well as life changes. Some of these changes have been exhausting – for both of us. There are times when I have been incredibly short with him, but it was because I was so tired I wasn’t thinking clearly. My love language is “Acts of Service, ” and even though I don’t tell him enough how much I appreciate him, I do notice all these little things he does for me. He is always the one willing to go shopping with me every time I need new clothes. He is always the one sitting there smiling when I walk out and say “Another size down GOOMBA!”. Every hair brained idea I get or inspiration to write, he is always my sounding board and biggest moral support. I am blessed beyond words.

We have different ideas of fun. Even though this event on Saturday isn’t quite up his alley, he is still going to be there watching from the finish area. He’s not even there to run, but he’ll be making sure to capture the images, so I remember what a special day this is for me and what a huge milestone in my life it truly is. 

If you’re reading this, thank you… For everything. I don’t say it enough, but I appreciate you so much. Thank you for being with me every step of the way. I will always be there for you….. count on me.

Lovingly,

Bean.