Thank You For Being [My] Friend

So I hope you will tolerate a nostalgia post.  Because I have felt very nostalgic lately.  Life has felt completely consuming.  Pepper jelly, plum jam, grocery shopping, paying rent, working, going to church, thinking up meals (and hopefully getting around to cooking them)...  It doesn't seem like a lot when I write it.  But man it's felt overwhelming.  And one of my biggest regrets is that I have not been in contact with friends like I would like to be.  And it makes me sad.  Because I love my friends.  Seriously.  I have been blessed with some of the most amazing friends I think this world has to offer.  And I miss those who are thousands of miles away.  One of the things I've always said would be the coolest thing ever would be to have all my friends from all my years all in one place.  Then I could see them all!  Haha...  Okay, it's selfish.  But still.  So, this is a song-title post, and I'm sure it doesn't take much to discern what it's about...  But in case you didn't figure it out...  You can consider this a tribute to some really awesome people that I haven't forgotten.  No matter how crummy I am at keeping in touch.  Thank you for being [my] friend.  And for the beautiful memories.

Here are Tammy and Stacy.  They are a mother and daughter -- and they are both dear friends of mine.  So I have a ton of memories with both of them.  I've known Stacy longer, because we were in the same ward in Dothan for several years and we were visiting teaching companions once upon a time.  I met her mom because she started reading my blog and Stacy ratted her out :).  But I'm glad, because she and I began emailing each other and became fabulous friends as well.  The memory I have chosen to share concerning these two grand ladies is one from the night pictured above.  It was August 2008, and I was in Dothan for a few days before my dad and I went to Panama and then I moved here to Washington.  So Tammy, Stacy, and I went to a movie and then got dessert at Ruby Tuesday afterwards.  The movie?  Mama Mia.  With Pierce and all his awful singing :).  Oh how we laughed the whole way through the movie!  Being that it was an Abba-inspired movie, the discussion of Abba songs was an obvious one.  So I shared with them this time when Pres. Hinckley was visiting Panama and my mom, Brad, and I rode with some other people to attend the meeting where he spoke.  Well, the family we went with included their son Trampas -- who proceeded to sing "He is the dancing queen!"  So I was telling this story to Tammy and Stacy, laughing to myself about Trampas singing that song wrong -- and very obnoxiously, I might add.  But they laughed long before I got to that part...  His name is so unique that it caught Tammy and Stacy off-guard, and that is what made them laugh so hard.  It may not seem funny to most who read this, but I know they will laugh :).  And I do too :).

This is my cousin.  Many know her as Elka.  And this picture was taken when we were on the train back to New Jersey from a fun-filled day in NYC.  She and I became more than cousins...  We became friends.  It was pretty awesome.  I think this happened because of blogs, actually.  We shared a love of The Office (back in its heyday).  We both appreciate the greatness that is WaWa (she more than I, since I'm sure she has experienced the full spectrum of it's awesomeness).  She is sarcastic and hilarious.  I was seriously so hoping she was going to be stationed here next.  Yeah.  A lot of awesomeness.  Favorite memory with her?  Well, there are probably way too many to name, one of the tops is probably during our family reunion in 2008.  She and I slept upstairs on the pull-out bed the first couple of nights before her husband arrived.  We were having prayer with the family (to include the grandparents) and we had prayer in the living room around the pull-out bed.  My grandmother's dog thinks he needs to be front and center at all events, and usually is.  He was used to being on the bed during prayer.  Well, my opinion of such things differs.  Although, if it's not my bed, I don't really care.  However, I was going to be sleeping in that one.  So when my grandmother said, "Come on Bruiser, let's get you on the bed."  I was a little horrified as I heard the jangling of the dogs tags and knew he was going to be romping on my bedsheets in mere moments.  Not so.  Because Elka shared my feelings.  And was outspoken about it.  She was like, "Oh no."  And it didn't happen.  I still laugh at it.  She totally didn't mean it to come out.  But it did.  And we laughed about it for quite a while that night.

The is the fabulous Stefanie.  She was my roommate in Tuscaloosa.  She was a blessing in so many ways back then.  She still is now -- when she leaves sweet comments on my blog.  We had some great times -- like this one above when she woke me up exclaiming it was snowing in Alabama!!!  (It melted by about noon).  So we had to take pictures as proof, ya know.  There we were, in our jammies.  I look lovely, I know.  One of my favorite memories with Stefanie was when we had some rudely noisy neighbors upstairs.  Like creaky bed noisy.  It was disturbing on so many levels.  And one day, Stefanie heard it too and started banging on the ceiling yelling, "Stop it!!"  Pure awesomeness.  I was not getting good sleep those days...

This is Virginia.  Also a friend from Tuscaloosa.  I so miss her!  She became the person I knew was always up for hanging out -- whether it was family home evening with me, her, and Stefanie; or just hanging at her apartment; or making FHE houses (mine's still not finished...); or going to the Temple together every month.  Virginia is awesome.  This picture was taken after a Temple trip.  We decided to eat out at some place -- and we got the pu-pu platter -- which came with fire in the middle.  Haha...  We were there pretty late, as our session at the Temple had ended around 8 and it was an hour to drive back to T-town.  She and I would walk together many days.  She would cheer me up when I was freaking out about how much hair I was losing.  I don't know...  She's just a true blue friend.  Oh, and she introduced me to the most awesome frozen yogurt ever.  At Publix.  Yes.  For real.  Particularly the mint chocolate cookie.  So much flavor and half the guilt :).  Or the same amount of guilt because you eat twice the amount :). 

Ah... April.  I contemplated so many pictures I could have posted.  And then I remembered our thrift store picture.  This one is too cool to leave out.  Just like April.  She and I met in library school.  We left class during a particularly awkward presentation and ended up conversing in the hall-way.  The rest, as they say, is history.  April is so incredibly generous.  She would take me to the airport in B'ham when I was flying out -- and pick me up when I came back.  She would give up sleep to do this.  We would have awesomely awesome girlie parties -- centered around food, of course.  I am not sure which memory is my favorite -- there are so many!  Definitely in the running is when we had our The Office-themed party.  And we dressed up as characters from the show.  That was just too much fun.  I miss her.

This is the fabulous Juliebean!  I have a bazillion pictures I could have chosen.  Seriously.  We've been friends forever (or so it seems).  Almost 14 years.  That's a long time, you know.  Holy cow.  Sitting here I can't quite believe it's been that long.  That's almost half my life.  The Julie memories are classic.  In fact, we keep a friendship journal which we (sometimes) send back and forth to each other and record favorite memories.  Like the time of "ew stank."  Or the time we went to Savannah, GA and we got caught in a downpour.  Or those few months we lived together at her parents' house.  But one memory that outshines so many has to be the trailer hotel.  See, we went to Birmingham in 2006.  It was my first time there (not including the airport).  We thought, "It's Birmingham...  No problem finding a hotel" so we didn't book one.  Big. Mistake.  There were soccer tournaments and hockey tournaments (now deemed sockey by Juliebean and Nilla) and, like, zero hotel rooms.  We even stopped at one that looks like a two-story trailer.  No joke.  It was booked.  We knew these were dire circumstances at this point.  We did end up finding a place.  Not far from where April lived, in fact.  The front desk person was like, "But it's a king bed."  We could so care less.  We'd been friends for years by then.  We had no problem sleeping in the same bed.  Haha...  Especially considering there was nothing else that was remotely possible (because we were not staying in the rundown ghetto-fabulous hotel that was across the street... the only one maybe worse than the trailer hotel). 

This is Annie.  She is one of my favorite people ever.  She and I worked together at UA.  She sat in the cube in front of me.  She took me under her wing when I moved there.  It was because of her that I attended the Christmas party at the UA President mansion.  She was an integral part of our WEB team (for Strive for Five).  We discovered we washed clothes at the same laundromat (prior to me moving in with Stefanie).  And probably one of the most hilarious memories we share is the whole rat-infestation of 2008 on the Cataloging floor.  Me stamping my feet to keep the (what I thought was a) mouse from escaping all the while calling Annie or our supervisor.  Annie finally responding and coming around the corner.  And informing me that was no mouse... it was a rat.  And the rest of the story that ensued.  Hilarious.

And there are others.  Many others.  Kristin with her mint chocolate chip ice cream and all things 80s (jelly shoes).  Donna and her teaching me to make I Spy quilts at Troy.  Anne and our hours-long gab sessions (or running into her at Wal-Mart when I'm there on vacation for like 2 days).

Sometimes I miss Alabama and my friends so bad.  I know Washington is where I belong.  But Alabama has become a home to me.  It's where I long to escape to when life gets overwhelming.  I want to drag my sweet husband to Dothan and Tuscaloosa to see all these wonderful people.  To share in the joy I find there.  Maybe I'll tell him that's where we're going when we want to run away :).  Maybe we should run away tonight :)...  I'll keep ya posted ;).