Best Friends Forever

About 20 plus years ago, on Alabama Dr., I wholeheartedly committed to being "bff" with a girl named Edrei who lived a few houses down. At the time I am sure that we both believed that we would indeed still be hanging out when we were 90 and present for every important life event that would occur. Alas, we were young and didn't take into account simple facts like; we were military brats, which meant moving every few years, e-mail hadn't been invented yet, and free long distance wasn't common-place.

Celebrating my birthday!

Not very long after our decision to always be best friends, both our families moved. I remember in her driveway as we both stooped over a plain white t-shirt with splatter paint, designing our BFF tee. We slick painted our names on each side of the t-shirt and vowed that we would mail the shirt back and forth and wear it for as long as it fit. Needless to say I received it last and until recently had been using it as a pajama top. Around 7th grade we lost contact, not that I didn't think about her all the time, and wonder where she was.

Fast forward to the year 2005 I am a newlywed and living in Texas, and there is this new thing called "Myspace". I just happen to type in my long lost best friends name in hopes of catching a glimpse of her. 5 pages of Edrei's later there she was, the very last one on the page. I promptly sent her a message asking if she remembered me and just saying Hi.

Surprise of my life, she responds. Not only does she remember me she never forgot me either, and the clincher, we were living in the same city for two whole years and she had just moved to the east coast one week prior to my message to her. Are you kidding me? I missed being reunited with my best friend in the whole world by one measly week. GRRRR!

My first and last big slumber party!!

Let me tell you about the two of us, there wasn't anything we couldn't do. We always had these bigger than life ideas. We started a singing group, she played the mini casio keyboard, and I was lead singer. We had our own animal rescue team. ( We never actually rescued anything, but our hearts were in the right place) We planned a parade for our street that equaled the Macy's Day parade. In the end it was me marching with a baton, her sister on a fisher price drum, and I think she was playing a recorder. We only went the length of 5 houses. We were in a church play together once, and you couldn't tell us we weren't going to be famous stars someday.

Edrei indeed was a huge part of my life , and seeing as how we only fought twice the entire length of our friendship (over M&M's and politics of all things), some of my favorite memories of childhood include her.

Posing with Owen

Ok, now to tie this in to Owen. Ok, so imagine how cool it is to see someone who has been your friend since you were 6, holding your child in their arms. Being a grown up seemed like it would take an eternity, and here we are adults and still giggling over nonsense and talking about outlandish ideas. I hope that Owen is blessed with a best buddy as wonderful as Edrei.Same as always, friends for life.