It was fourth year university and me and the 697 girls were throwing a little (very big) shindig. If you’re reading this and wondering to yourself “what is a 697 girl, some kind of skank-o-rama?” The answer is: No. That’s not what a 697 girl is. Perv. That was our address. Get your mind out of the gutter. Anyway, for this party in particular, several of my high school girlfriends drove up for the night to partake in the festivities. You see, we threw legendary parties (according to myself), which is why the girls rationalized the roughly 3 hour drive.

This party, like most of our parties was a ‘Mixer-26er’ party. This means that each guest is required to bring a 26er or a case of beer. The house (us) would supply all of the mix, all of the cups, and all of the garnishes. Also, each member of the house would contribute to the bar with something a little more fun, like Fireball, or Sourpuss, to ensure that if people wanted to do shots, they could. The bonus of hosting these parties was that the house got to keep any left over booze, which was great during our economic recession we all seem to call university. These parties, often consisted of a lot of fun, random people hooking up at our house (let’s just say our orange couch got a lot of use), the police getting called for noise complaints, and a dance party in our kitchen where all of our serving utensils would become pretend microphones. They were awesome.

Because of our age and the accessibility of alcohol, many of us consumed MUCH more than we ever should. Andrea, one of my Windsor friends, also known as Ange, had a little too much fun and because alcohol is a depressant, got very sad about how much she missed her boyfriend, Leighton. What’s that all about? In her adorable drunk sob-fest, Ange inconsolably cried about just how much she missed him. It was a lot. She really missed him. Ange being the super cute crier that she is, laid in my bed weeping and repeating to herself and to all of the girls, ‘I miss Leighton. I miss Leighton.’ We reassured her that she’d see him tomorrow, and that she saw him that morning, but it wasn’t good enough. She wanted and missed her then boyfriend (now husband) so much, that there was nothing we could do. She had to cry herself to sleep. It really was so funny, and so cute. But I never really understood it. It seemed crazy, hysterically funny, and so ridiculous to me. She saw him THAT morning and she was going to see him the very next day. I just couldn’t wrap my head around it. I had never missed anyone like that. That is…until recently.

It was at some point last year when I went away for the weekend, for a girlfriends bachelorette party at a cottage on Pelee Island, sans Mr. Opposite. It was just two nights. That’s it. It was my first time ever leaving him since we had become really serious. He had gone away a couple of times for boys nights, but this was different. I was the one gone. I was the one who wasn’t going to be sleeping in our bed. So, when it came time for bedtime, I got really, really sad, not crying sad, but really really sad (I’m lying, I teared up 100%). I hated that I wasn’t going to sleep beside him, that I wasn’t going to wake up next to him, and that I couldn’t kiss his face. I hated it. Like seriously hated it. As I sat staring into the starry night sky moping after our goodnight call and was thinking to myself about how much I missed him, a thought came into my head, ‘I miss Leighton. I. Miss. Leighton’. I finally got it. I finally understood how drunk Andrea felt about her faraway lover. That pit in your stomach feeling like something is missing, something big. So, from that moment on, whenever I go away for the night and I start to really miss Mr. Opposite, I think to myself ‘I miss Leighton,’ and then I start to laugh. In fact, it actually makes my aching heart feel a little better that I’m not alone in my close to obsessive longing for the man I call my number 1.

Note: Leighton and Andrea Bain gave me permission to write this post. Also note that Leighton is a talented musician and you can find him on myspace here: http://www.myspace.com/leightonbain