The Thelma to her Louise. The Michelle to her Romy. The Idgie to her Ruth. The Jenna to her Liz. The Jess to her Cece. (Major props to you if you can name all the films/shows these duos are associated with.)
I’ve been lucky enough to be blessed with one of those teenybopper novel best friend relationships. Friendships in books like “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” or “Fried Green Tomatoes”. You know, the always ones. We are in a domestic partnership together on facebook. If either of our significant others ever complained about that I’d kill ’em.
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| Winterball 2005/2006 Me pink, her grey. Sidenote: our friend S in the middle clearly has the best dress…. |
And this special lady is staying with me from Friday till Monday this week. So today’s Throwback Thursday is in her honor. I can honestly say that she’s one of the most incredible parts of my life. Here are some of the highlights of our 15 years (and counting) of friendship. For her privacy we’ll just call her G.
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| Look at that love! Even from behind you can sense the connection. Me striped skirt, her black floral skirt. Age 17. |
When we were 14 we’d stay up all night watching movies, eating pizza and brownies and giving each other henna tattoos. At least one girl would invariably fall asleep while her henna was drying and she’d have smudged artwork on her for the next few weeks. One time, I even came down with the stomach flu in the middle of one of these sleepovers. And it was sudden. We drifted off to sleep at about 4 am. I remember jolting awake just in time to register the fact that I was about to vomit on my sleeping bag. It was so quick nothing could be done. Her words to everyone else were, “Somebody get Manda a towel.” And then fell back asleep. Groggily, the other girls woke up, too sleepy to be shocked while another girl and her mom sprayed off my sleeping bag in a light winter snow flurry.
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| We have very few picture of the two of us because G hates having her picture taken. Dec 2008. So lots of photos look like this. (Sophomore Year of College. Both at home for Winterbreak. My blonde years) |
We both loathed math class an equal amount. In our pre-calculus class junior year of highschool we passed notes back and forth in something we called “the conspiracy stick”. It was no sneaky way to pass notes. It was a stick as long as my arm and 1/2” thick that was hollowed out in the middle so that you could put something small in it and no one could see. We passed this giant stick back and forth. Because not a damn was given by us in that class. When pairs would go up to the blackboard to graph trigonometric functions we drew pictures of eggs or the Guadalupe on some part of the graph. (Dear Dr. M, I’m sorry. In retrospect I’ve realized we must have made your life really difficult.)
We decorated t-shirts together, we went on road-trips, we danced in the same class, we went on hikes. We’ve done schoolwork side by side, from 6th grade to our last year of college. Digested 1000s of gallons of Diet Dr Pepper together. Everything about my childhood and teenage years can be linked to hers. And even though we went to colleges on the opposites sides of the country every year we’d make a trip to see the other even if we were going to see each other when we were both home during the holidays. (G was much better about coming down to Atlanta than I was about going up to Massachusetts.)
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| G came to my University during senior year for a visit in time for one of my sorority’s date parties. It was “famous couples” themed. Obviously we were Johnny and June Cash. |
I have a brother that I love but I was never blessed with a sister. Luckily, I have G who I consider my sister in every way except for actually being related. Now we both have MA’s and adult lives. She is making an impact on people’s lives on a daily basis. G is talented, beautiful, intelligent, hilarious, loyal, creative and one of the most genuine people you’ll ever meet. In short, I love her.
