Day 25 - Bestest Friends

About says it all

Today is my best friend's birthday. She's 45. Happy birthday, Old Woman! (hahahaha)

Also, sorry your birthday card(s) (there might be more than 1 in the mail) is/are late.

To the left here is one of the funniest pictures of us together. The following link though is probably my favourite picture of the two of us.  I would've liked to scan a few pictures from our early years, back in 1982-83 but all my picture albums are packed away in preparation for my move this winter.

Thanks to technology, yesterday we were able to talk via Skype for a little over an hour (short, by our standards) and it was like no time has passed at all. Despite the time difference, the months since my visit in June, we always seem to pick up wherever.  There was, of course, the obligatory laughing so hard that one of us didn't understand what the other was saying and it didn't matter because just hearing the other laugh made us laugh too.

How did we meet? We met in grade 7, in music class. I was playing the clarinet and I think Yvette (who prefers to go by the nickname Why) was too. Either that or the oboe or the flute. Anyway, we were learning this piece of music called Goodnight, Ladies and for some insane reason (what other kind of reason would there be?), during a break, I was singing into my clarinet and swaying to the song. (As I write this I realise how crazy it sounds. This should give you a good idea of what will follow in the next 30 years.)  Well, my swaying and swinging caught the attention of Why and she soon joined in. And that was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

We have probably gotten into more trouble from laughing and causing a ruckus than from any actual bad behaviour. A few examples:  we got detention for waving in biology class (Why was telling a story, I was acting it out); we knocked a shelf down in a Hallmark card store (trying to look at some book); we started using fake voices/accents (and still use them to this day - and now when I do one of those voices with my niece & nephew, they crack up too!); then there was the time Why got her shirt stuck on a horse saddle once and ended up hanging off the horse; we would double over with laughter after having photo booth pictures taken. I don't know who says what or why some things happen but we can almost guarantee when a situation requires good (quiet) behaviour, something will happen that will have us poking each other in the side or lifting our eyebrows at each other.

Sometimes I find it incredible that we've been friends since we were about 13 years old but have only lived in the same city for the first 8-9 years of that friendship. She went and married a good Swiss guy and has lived near Zurich ever since. We do manage the occasional visit, but they are few and far between. Still, it makes us appreciate our friendship very much and we take advantage of the times we do get to spend together.

Happy birthday, MyWhy!