Thirteenth Friend-iversary

I am participating in the Blogging From A-Z Challenge.  Each day in April (except Sunday), I will post topic themes that begin with the letters of the alphabet, from A-Z.  Today's letter is T.

My besty & I don't remember the exact day we met or the exact day we became friends.  After a few years, we decided to pick a date & that is how April 20th became our friend-iversary.  (No, we're not pot heads.  It was just an easy day to remember.)  

We do, however, remember the story of how we met.  Here's my side of it, along w/ a little back story b/c that's just how I roll.

Our first 4th of July as homies

In February 2000, I moved back to Oregon after several years in Central Arkansas.   Oregon is where I was born, raised, and where my heart will always belong.  What I didn't anticipate when I moved back was that everyone that I had known before I moved would be gone at college or moved away themselves.  Being 19 and married to someone who was so insecure that they resented any time I spent away from him, I had a very hard time making friends.  I've never had trouble with that before and the loneliness and depression weighed me down to the point that I started contemplating suicide.

Finally in March, I found a job and work took my mind off of everything else.  It gave me something to focus on outside of myself.  I enjoyed the people I worked with, but still had difficulty making friends that I could talk to off-the-job.  That is, until early April when my supervisor came to me and asked me to help train a new cashier by the name of Christina.

My maid of (dis)honor

I had no clue then that this person would become MY person. It started out innocently enough with a conversation about rubber fists and N'Sync.  I'm sure she was the first to offer her phone number b/c she is outgoing and I was painfully shy at that point in time.  Before long, I was going with her to see those rubber fists in real life, and thus began a lifelong friendship.

In 13 years, we've never had a fight.  (There was one time when I got mad thinking that she stood me up, but that was me being dumb b/c we didn't actually have plans that day.)  We've been married, divorced, and have found our soul mates.  We've had kids and birthdays, a lot of laughter and a few heartbreaks.  She is the person who took me to get my driver's license at the ripe old age of 24.  She came and helped me move my stuff in a single day when I left my ex-husband, then came to my new apartment and helped me unpack.  

Looking sexy as hell. What else is new?!

In 13 years our lives have changed.  A lot.  The only constant in that time has been our friendship.  I am just as excited about growing old with her as I am about growing old with my husband.  She is my heterosexual life partner.  The years will keep ticking by, things will keep changing. Time will keep bringing triumph along with sadness, but we can count on each other to be there for the duration.  

Who said nothing good would come from the mass production of rubber fists?!

Still shockin' after all these years!