i found a dear friend!

i am just thrilled beyond words.
the first day of 3rd grade i met this lovely girl named elizabeth. we were inseparable. i spent so many days and nights at her house, that i often wondered if her gracious parents wondered where the 4th child came from. her dad was a basketball coach and he would often let us shoot with his balls on the weekends. we were destined to go pro. i remember so many wonderful things about our friendship. remember fimo? we were addicted to it and it just so happened that she had a wonderful stash of it. we made everything- jewelry, furniture pieces, obscene things, you name it we made it. the whole house would fill up with that plastic/clay smell as you were baking it. it was so much fun. we even traveled to her grandparents house one year and they paid for us to take tennis lessons. we were destined to go pro. i think that was the last time i played tennis. weird. we also rocked the bad mitten court. ie: her backyard. ooooh man we were good. we were destined to go pro.

to give you an idea of when this was, ace ventura pet detective was JUST released on video. she got a copy as soon as it came out and she was a lucky duck and had the ace ventura i.d. card. i was so jealous. *side note: my husband has one and i call it mine. pump up the jam had just came out and one easter we would take out cadbury milk duds and lick the blue ones and put them on our lips. hot, i know. we were awesome. we also both loved fred savage soooo much.
i won't tell you what we did to reiterate that. (oh stop it, jeeze.)

sleepover after sleepover liz was an amazing outlet for me as my dad was formerly married to a major biotch of the universe. liz should be delighted to know that it ended when i was 13, and not soon enough. single handledy the happiest day of my life. seriously. i'm not sure how it happened or when, but we slowly started to lose touch. we lived so close, and i hate that it happened. it soon turned into doorstep greetings. every may day and valentines day we would leave each other a little something on each others doorstep. i remember my very last bouquet of flowers from her. they were daffodils. my very favorite. soon after that she started to attend another school and we never saw each other. i also started my first job. i worked at island bakery and by now, it was my freshman year in high school. with my job weekends became obsolete.

my sophomore year of HS i ran into her in a local store, i was so excited to see her. we had a small chat and i never knew that it was going to be our last one for nearly 15 years. i hate that i went through high school without her. HS is hard enough without a good support system and i definitely needed her as a part of my life. not a day passed that i did not think about her. i met my husband my junior year and i remember us leaving notes in her mailbox in hopes her parents or the new tenants could get it to her. i never had luck. years that seem like forever passed and i can't believe that i never once ran into her.

i feel like i just gained a huge part of my life that was missing for so long. even though she was not there physically, i have always considered her one of my very best friends. lucky for me she is still in the area and we hope to re-connect this year. not hope, we will. and i will count the days until we do. i can only imagine this is what it feels like to win the lottery-but way better. this is the best year ever.