My Best Friend

I had many friends growing up.  I wasn't the most popular, but I could always find at least one or two close friends wherever I was.  I lived in several states growing up.  My parents had a job that travelled to another state for 6 months every year.  Every January, we would pack up our clothes and head to somewhere new and exciting.  In June, we would return to Kentucky, where I was born and (mostly) raised.  I was a relatively shy kid, especially when I hit puberty and started gaining a substantial amount of weight.  But I would always find at least one friend at my new schools.  However, I only have 1 very best friend.  Her name is Angie.

I remember the day I met Angie.  I was in 6th grade.  I was living in Kentucky at the time.  It was a warm afternoon and we were outside for gym class.  I had somehow talked my way out of running the track that day and I was sitting on the side of a grassy hill watching my poor, unfortunate classmates trekking around the track.  There was a brown-haired girl sitting a few feet away from me on the grassy hill.  I don't remember who started the conversation, but we began chatting and exchanged numbers.  At the time, we didn't have any classes together.  We started talking on the phone pretty regularly. 

Over the summer between our 6th and 7th grade years, we became best friends.  Every weekend we were at one another's houses for a sleepover.  Angie was at my house so frequently growing up that my parents consider her as one of their daughters.  She is not just my friend, she is family.  We aggravated our parents so much because we were always on the phone together after school.  They finally relented and gave us our own private phone lines.  I guess they were tired of picking of the phone and hearing two 13-year old girls talking for hours on end.  Oddly enough, Angie and I both hate talking on the phone now. 

I continued moving to another state during my 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th grade years.  While I was living out of state, I would frequently write letters to Angie and occasionally call her on the phone.  I remember that during my 9th grade year, I had moved to Reno.  I started calling her a little too frequently and found myself grounded after my parents received a $300 phone bill.  Oops.

I remember very vividly in 1989, I was living in Wichita, Kansas.  Angie and I were both watching MTV and chatting over the phone about the videos.  A video came on by a relatively new group called New Kids On The Block (NKOTB).  Being 14-year old girls, we were instantly hooked on this boy band.  We talked about our favorite guys in the band.  Her favorite was Jordan and my favorite was Joey.  Over the next several years, our lives revolved around NKOTB.  Our walls were covered in posters.  I would make-up stories about meeting the band and dating our favorites.  I've always loved reading and writing.  I didn't want to write the stories down, but I wanted to tell them.  So, I would call them "dreams".  I would start off the story by saying, "Last night I had this dream...."  I'm sure Angie probably knew that no dream is as detailed as my stories were.  Sometimes the stories I would tell were based on an actual dream, but they were greatly embellished.  I think she enjoyed hearing these fantasy "dreams" as much as I liked telling them.  Ah, teen-aged girls.  They have such imaginations.

Throughout our middle school and high school years, we went to multiple NKOTB concerts.  We also met many new friends because they were also "Blockheads", as NKOTB fans are called.  A couple of years ago, NKOTB started touring again.  We went to see our favorite band in the summer of 2013 and again this summer.  We behaved liked teenagers and screamed and danced our butts off.  It was awesome!

When Angie and I started high school, we were in two different school districts, so we couldn't attend the same high school.  This didn't hinder our friendship much.  Although I made new friends, we still spent most weekends together.  We even started including some of our new school friends in our weekend plans. 

When we were about to graduate high school, we formulated a plan to go to Boston and meet NKOTB.  We told our parents we wanted a trip to Boston as our graduation present.  Our parents came through.  We didn't meet NKOTB, but we had so much fun that week we spent in Boston as 18-year olds on our own in the big city for the first time.  It was magical.  We still talk about this trip and the amusing things that happened to us on our journey.  These are memories we will be chatting about as old ladies in the nursing home.

We've been through a lot over the years.  She was there for me when I found out my dad had cancer.  She was there for me when I found out I had PCOS.  I was there for her when she had some medical issues.  She was there for me through my infertility struggles.  We've been each other's shoulder to lean on or cry on.

When she and her husband decided to try and have a baby, she was nervous to tell me about her pregnancy because she was worried about how it would impact me.  I was so excited for her that I cried.  I would never be upset about someone bringing a child into a loving home.  Some women who struggle with fertility become bitter and angry at everyone that is able to conceive and give birth to a child.  She was even more anxious when she found out she was pregnant with her 2nd child almost 6 years ago.  I had already been trying to have a child for about 9 years at that time.  She shouldn't have worried.  I was just as excited for her as I was the first time she got pregnant. 

Every family function I have, Angie is there.  When I took in 3 foster kids, she brought gently-used clothes and shoes from her daughters for my daughter.  When I adopted my children, she was in the court room with us.  I was at the hospital for the birth of both of her daughters.  During the summertime, we load up her 2 kids, my 3 kids, and my niece and nephew, and go and do fun things.  We do movies, trips to the zoo, bowling trips, and once a week we go to her house for a swimming party.  While the kids play, Angie and I chat or just sit quietly and enjoy one another's company.  You know you have a true friend when you can sit in silence and not feel the need to fill every second with conversation. 

We try to get together at least once or twice a month and do fun things with our families.  This past weekend we took our kids bowling and went and had some pizza.  I love that we get to do fun things together.  My kids love playing with her daughters.  Angie and I also go out once a month to a Paint & Sip place to paint and drink water or soda (neither of us are drinkers).  We enjoy painting, but we really enjoying having time to talk without distractions like children and husbands.

My oldest son and her oldest daughter have some disabilities that are very similar.  It is so comforting to be able to call her and talk about the days I struggle with my son and know that she completely understands.  She knows she can call me and tell me about her rough days with her daughter and I will understand what she is going through.  She listens to me vent.  To an outsider who doesn't have a child with a disability, they may not understand our frustration.  She gets it. 

I love Angie.  I can't imagine my life without her.  Her friendship has meant more to me than I could ever put into words.  I know that no matter what changes may come, one thing will never change; our friendship.  Some day, we will be old ladies sitting around talking about the time I was threatened by an bag lady with a plastic butter knife, or the time we met Joey from NKOTB, the time my parents kicked us out of the room because we couldn't stop giggling at a scene in the movie we were watching, the time these tourists from Singapore offered to take us out for steak and lobster in hopes of snagging a young, American wife and the funny conversations we had with them, the dreams, the cookouts, the swimming parties, the concerts, sleepovers, bunco, costume parties, births, funerals, movies, music, and the list goes on and on.  There are many stories like this throughout our friendship.  I'm sure at some point, we will be boring our children with our adventures.

If you have a best friend, make sure you tell them how important they are to you.  Good friends are hard to find.  Great friends are nearly impossible to find.  Angie is a great friend.  She is my best friend and I love her.