A lesson in humility

So, I attended a wedding this evening of my oldest friend.

Sounds lovely, right?

In theory, it is.  In reality - not quite as much.

To give you a little background on the story: My friend C's is 3 months younger than I am.  Her family lived across the street from my family for the first few years of our lives.  Before she was school aged, her family moved to what what considered a town outside of the city I live in (which urban sprawl, it's now just the far end of a suburb - go figure).  We still kept in contact, mostly via LETTERS (Imagine that!) and the occasional sleepover.  Even though we didn't attend any of the same schools, we remained close friends.  C got her teaching degree and moved out to Thailand to teach English.  It was there she met her now husband who was traveling from Sweden, where they now live.  They married in Sweden at the beginning of the month, and today was the celebration for her Canadian family and friends who could not be in Sweden for the actual wedding...

That brings us to today.

A) My sister was invited to the wedding, but couldn't make it out as she had plans with her boyfriend to celebrate her birthday.  THAT meant I was going solo.  To a wedding where I knew NO one.  That was bad enough in itself.
B) We are going through a heatwave right now and it felt like 36C with the humidity today.. The wedding was an outdoor evening event held at her parents place.

I get to the wedding looking pretty sharp, if I may say so myself, and after standing awkwardly by myself with a glass of champagne a few gals invited me to stand with them and chat while we ate tapas, etc... which I was thankful for.  After eating, the heat was REALLY getting to me and I began to feel ill.  I went up to the bar area to grab a cold water and as I teetered in my 3" heels on the way back..... I fainted.

I bloodied up one of my legs and poured my water over myself.  C came running up and made sure I was okay.. I sat down and still felt horrible.  She told me to head inside to her folks basement to cool down in the airconditioning.  I staggered in (refusing to admit I was feeling as bad as I did, in true to my form stubborn fashion) and sat on the step for a few moments until one of the catering staff and a random Swede helped me downstairs (I slide down on my bum as I didn't trust myself to navigate stairs in heels) and brought me water and a cool cloth.

There I sat humiliated for about 20 minutes.  I texted my sis and best friend to share my humiliation.  When I finally felt better, I went back upstairs where speeches were under way.

OH YES, C's sister mentioned me as C's oldest friend... so everyone turned to look at me...

Those gals who were talking to me before?  They wouldn't even LOOK at me after.  Presumably thinking I was drunk and fell over, not heat exhausted.

I waited out the speeches, apologized to C for making a scene, stayed to watch them dance a song and left.

Why me?