By Beauty Damned

BFF

It feels like it's Sunday night to me, I have no idea why. But it's not. It's only Saturday night and I have a whole nother day off to look forward to tomorrow. Kathleen and Charles are staying with me for a couple of weeks until their apartment is ready so I have to do some deep cleaning before they get here on Monday evening. They're also going to watch the house and feed Matilda while Rob and I are on vacation in Oregon. I love having them. They are the best houseguests. They always clean up after themselves and help make dinner and they like to take walks and it's so fun having my best friend over everyday. Even after more than ten years of friendship, I never get tired of her. Nearly every single memory I have of us is a happy one. Even the few times where we bickered seem funny and if there was a time when one of us was truly upset or hurt, it has come to seem like another colorful moment in the mosaic of memories that have accumulated over the years. Kat and Chas haven't stayed over at my house since they moved to NY a year ago, so I'm really looking forward to the extended visit, even though they live less than fifteen minutes away from me as it is.

Kat and I met in highschool creative writing class in Ashland, OR and quickly discovered that we both lived in Southern California most of our lives, had just recently moved to Oregon with our families, and that we had the same interests. Kathleen and I had many crazy adventures together. She moved into this big green haunted house in the woods with a bunch of other people we knew and I stayed there with her almost every night when I was 16 and 17. We had little single mattresses that we slept on and we got up and drove to highschool together every morning. We partied together, traveled together, and got in trouble together. (Though she was always the innocent seeming one). We drove all up and down the west coast in her little gold Taurus, "Margaret" (she gave it an old lady's name because it was a kind of old ladyish ride). We got identical tattoos on Venice Beach and got drunk together in TiJuana. We bathed in freezing cold rivers together in Canada and in 50 cent laundromat showers in Washington. We drank Pina Coladas by the pool together in Las Vegas and partied at Mardi Gras together in New Orleans. We have slept in the car together, camped in creepy places together, squabbled over who got to wear the favorite pair of high heels or the best skirt, swam in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans together -- witnessing the sunset at one and lamenting having missed sunrise at the other...and through it all we have each filled several journals and spent many, many hours side by side or sitting across from eachother, writing, reading or painting, as that has remained one of the strongest bonds between us, our love of all things art and literature.

Kat's the brunette. I guess I was feeling a little serious that night.

That's us. Bad girls forever. Who ever knew we'd end up in NYC, 3,000 miles from the small town where we first met, as adult women, living independently in this big wide world? It still sort of amazes me that we've stuck together one way or another all these years. I guess that's what having a real friend is all about.

Posted by Maria at June 20, 2004 12:32 AM | TrackBack