Just Because Friday: Best Friend

I think sometimes the word Best Friend is overused like when your 5 and you have one best friend every other play date, but as I've grown up there have been a few key people in my life that have made the cut through thick and thin and have really stuck with me. These people are my best friends. They are the family I chose and I love them to death!

I don't have many close friends that are still close from my K-12 days. I still keep in touch with a number of them from school, but my life took a very different direction and things changed - I changed...and the three amigos from high school ended during my freshman year in college. Most of my good friends I made in college and I think that is true for a large majority of them, but that close knit group has also disbanded from time, life....arguments. Again after life happens there are a handful of people that make it. For me one of these people is my Jenna!

Jenna and I became friends thank to a statistics class we took our Freshman year at TCU. We had known each other through different circles and mutual friends that would impact the next 4 years, but statistics would bond us with Dr. Dollar. Go figure 10 years later I'm back working at TCU and Dr. Dollar with his bad hair piece is still teaching statistics!

Jenna and I have been through alot. We always seem to go through the same thing in a different context at a different time, but our life path is oddly reciprocal in most cases. We both are nerds - we love to learn and between us our degrees are abundant. We both were Political Science majors and graduated that way - though she survived political theory and I opted for lots of research classes.  We were super active in college and we did a little of everything - sororities, SGA, clubs, and worked all through college. We never lived together ironically though we've always shared space with a couch here or there. This may be one of the reasons are friendship has lasted - we've never been roomies.

We always catch everything - we get a cold, sinus infection - you name it. We never have the normal diagnosis and always have specialist. I think of this as being good patients and always having someone understand what we are going through because when you get the "wierd" thing or have the odd reaction you need someone who understands. This has followe us into adult hood.

We love to travel though she is way more seaonsed than I am. She is lucky to take her traveling into her work and has gone all over. We love languages and I speak one she doesn't! Take that spanish classes, though she would be much more handy in Europe....sighs! One day I'll take her to South America and feel like a rock star. We are also foodies. We love to eat and cook. Though since she became a celiac and I've had WLS foodies and us are more interesting. I will always relish our trip to Vegas where we ate our way through the strip and we enjoyed our food to the max!

I miss her. She is living way abroad now and we don't get to frequently chit chat, but I did get to send her off TX style sitting at two favorite places of ours before she moved....though we have no current pictures together! How that happens I don't know, but alas we've been through alot...pictures don't define the friendship it is the memories that do.

Everytimg I watch Grey's Anatomy I think of her. She is my person as Christina would say. We are definitely Christina and Meredith in our frienship and there have been many episodes over the course of the show where I can say "OMG that is so me and Jenna!". I miss her and wish I could just have coffee and chat with her cause for some reason I'm needing her today.

There are a ton of things I could say about this wonderful woman, but there aren't space or words. So here is a short list of awesome things I love about my friend!

1. She is Multi-Lingual - a total plus!
2. Loves food (except for crab and even after living in MD for long while did she come to like it)
3. Adores coffee like I do and Starbucks is our friend :-)
4. She writes the most interesting travel blogs
5. Thoughtful
6. Willing to support me no matter the issue and believe you me I've had some crazy life decisions
7. Understands my WLS and the process of losing weight - she has had to lose weight herself so being active and understand lifestyle changes has been super helfpul
8. She is open minded
9. Loves politics
10. Her cats and I have always gotten along - I don't like cats and am uber allergic with the exception of her cats! Who knew!?!?!?!
11. Loves Friends (the show) as much as I do!
12. We both got married later in life
13. We married the same "type" of guy and our husbands get along (when we do get to see each other)
14. We love pictures, though I think she is a better photographer
15. She is crafty

Overall I just love her to pieces and I can't wait to see her even if I have to I know make the hardship of flying over for a vacation in a great foreign country! I miss you Miss Jenna more than you know. Love you lots kiddo!