caity & tres clinton!

Even if no one ever reads this, I'd like to document for my own sake just how much I admire Caity & Tres and how stinking excited I am that they're getting hitched!!

My great-grandparents have been married for 74 years. 74 years! That’s insane, right? Right. But one thing I’ve learned from watching them, loving them, admiring them, and being raised to respect them is this: love works when it’s with your best friend. Sure, they’ve had their arguments, they see numerous things differently, but one thing is certain: they love each other’s company immensely. They have found a perfect match, a best friend, the ultimate compadre, in the other.

Which brings me to this weekend. One of my favorite places on earth, Camp Longhorn, with some of it’s finest people: Caity Robertson and Tres Clinton.

I’ve known Tres since we were in the 8th grade, we spent two weeks together at the same term at Camp Longhorn every year, and he was such a fun guy, easy to talk to, and a friend to all the girls – not just the tiny ones who wore tiny bikinis and talked about tiny things. Four years later I met Caity, and though I knew they were the same age and from the same high school, I did not know Caity and Tres were Caity and Tres for several weeks. And in camp timelines, that’s forever. Why did I miss this? Well, first of all, I’m blonde and sometimes slow. Second of all, these two never talk about themselves.

Caity & Tres both have this humility about them . They don’t boast of their accomplishments or their families, though they could. They don’t boast about their talents or their wonderful traits, though they both could. They make others around them happy, they are magnetic and funny and they are both feisty with a fire that is exciting to be around.

Though I won’t ramble about them for fear I’ll sound like a maudlin grandmother or a creepy twenty-four year old friend, I will say this. I am blessed to know both Caity and Tres, for they are the type of fun-loving, All-American, true friends, unassuming, kind hearted people that this world needs more of, but also because …their coolness occasionally rubs off on me. And I could use more of that.

A lot of people who see Caity and Tres a lot more often than myself could say this: I’ve seen this wedding coming for years and years. But truly, I knew Caity and Tres were the real deal one June evening as we rode the backroads of Burnet. Long story short, the three of us were smushed into Tres’s truck, Caity ridin in the middle, me my feet on the dash. I remember being thrilled to be their “third wheel” – everywhere these people go, they attract adventure and laughter. That night we had been out on Inks Lake while working for Tex, and midnight was approaching. Caity had been getting calls on her cell phone all night from someone’s name I can’t remember. Something like, Bobby or Tim or Steve. He’d ask what she was doing, ask if she still had a boyfriend, etc. I think this was summer after our sophomore year of college and this punk was from Burnet high school days of Caity & Tres.

About the fifth time he called, it was near midnight and we were on the final stretch of ranch road back to camp. Caity’s patience had worn off, and she grumbled as her phone rang.

“Don’t answer it,” I said as the phone rang, windows down of the truck, us singing who knows what country song.

“Let me talk to that SOB.” Tres smiled as he said it, joking.

Caity answered her phone. “Stop calling me. Please.” Her face did not look as friendly as usual. “Seriously. Just stop calling me.”

She was quiet and I don’t remember if she started yelling at him or Tres, but apparently the dude told Caity he’d been watching her and knew where she was. Though it wasn’t serious, it was creepy and annoying. Before I knew it, the phone had been ripped from Caity’s fingers and Tres was on the phone.

I had never seen Tres angry, and it was both funny and intimidating.

“Listen, you bastard, if you do not stop bothering my girlfriend, I WILL find you. Quit calling her, or you’ll have to deal with me. Cut this shit out, NOW or I’ll drive over with my pistol and we’ll fix this.”

I remember laughing when Caity was mad at Tres for overreacting, and screeching like a city girl when Tres got out his pistol. I remember knowing, right then, that Caity and Tres were perfect together. At first, they seemed just like good friends, but there’s a quiet, strong love there that, well, you had better not mess with. Seriously. That boy drives around with a pistol in his glove box and he kills snakes in his free time. He is my brother’s idol.

It’s impossible for me to be around Caity or Tres without smiling so much that my face begins to hurt. I am sure this weekend I’ll acquire some laugh lines.

I cannot wait until Saturday, as their friends and family gather under the stars at one of the greatest places on earth, to celebrate the greatest thing on earth: true, unconditional love.

Here’s to love, here’s to caity & tres, and here’s to camp longhorn and it’s founders, pat & tex robertson.

"I am nothing special; just a common man with common thoughts, and I've led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten. But in one respect I have succeeded as gloriously as anyone who's ever lived: I've loved another with all my heart and soul; and to me, this has always been enough." –the notebook