It's Friday, I'm in Love....

Because it's Friday, and I promised, here's another edition of "It's Friday I'm in Love..." (please note the aptly used Cure reference, a throwback from my teen angst days.  PS I still LOVE them.)

Today, I want to tell you why I love my friend, Jennifer.

Jen and I met on the day we moved into our dorms at Southwest Texas State University in August of 1992.  I moved there with my best friend from high school (side note--this is something I would definitely not do again if I had the chance.  I wouldn't recommend it, unless a. you are used to living with your best friend, or b. you have been friends all of your life and you are 100% positive your friendship can withstand the strain) and Jennifer came all by her lonesome from Midland.  We were standing in line in front of her to get room assignments, and I remember thinking as I heard her speak to her mom, "This is someone that I could be friends with," you know, in case the whole best friend thing didn't work out.  Turns out that was pretty prophetic of me, considering that by Christmas my best friend and I were not even on speaking terms.  Boy, is THAT another story for another time...

Jen got assigned to the room next door to me, and  she got a "potluck" roommate who was never there, except to change clothes. That girl's clothes always smelled like a weird combination of b.o. and cigars.  Turns out she was a horse of a different color, if you know what I mean, which you probably don't but Jenny does.  Since she was always alone, we invited her to go everywhere with us and we hit it off fast.  We became better friends than I was with my "best" friend from home, who at that point mostly found new people to hang out with, leaving Jennifer and I on our own.  That was cool with us.

The awesome thing about our friendship is that it just felt like we had known each other all of our lives the day we met.  We ended up finishing each other's sentences, and almost speaking in our own private language of inside jokes.  I'm sure we annoyed and confused so many other people who were ever around us.  To this day, when we talk (which is not often enough, because we both have three kids and crazy lives) we usually just start up a conversation we may have left off two years ago.  We've been friends for 17 years now; her family has always treated me like I was their own, and so at this point I would say we were more family than friends.  We can make each other laugh even when the walls are crashing around us; sometimes it feels like if we were the only two people on earth, that might be okay. She just gets me in a way that no one else does, or ever has.

I want Jennifer to know just how much I love her, and not in a gross kind of way (Stop going there, perverts!) either.  She is the other half of my soul, I believe, because it just makes perfect sense when we are together.  How else could we go sometimes a year without talking and then start up like we just talked five minutes ago? Anyone else I would have written off long ago, and she probably would have too. She is my oldest and dearest friend and I trust her with my life and the life of my children.  

Jenny, I love you.  Stop crying.