One I Love: Rachael

I don't know how common it is in life to be friends with someone longer than you haven't been friends with someone. 

I met my best friend when I was 12. We hated each other that first few months of sixth grade. She thought I was annoying and I thought she was mean. Funny thing? I was annoying, and she was mean. At least we were to each other. 

Somehow, we got over that, and by seventh grade we clung to each other and never let go. Her acne and my chubbiness made for some pretty serious clinging at times. We were a couple of dorks who didn't care what people thought (at least, we didn't show it... I'm pretty sure we spent hours caring over the phone or in tears at points). We stood up for ourselves, stood up against the cheerleaders who tended to give us hell from time to time, stood up to teachers who treated us unjustly, and had a heck of a lot of laughs.

When she got detention, I would intentionally get detention. Because you don't let your friend go down alone.

When she was in Ag, I joined Ag. (Then, I left. Because I could NOT hang in that class. You know we had to watch a pig get castrated?! EW! I was a pretty good welder, though...)

I WISH I knew what was happening on this phone call.

Over the years, we only grew closer. 

And then, a full page or two in my Senior Scrapbook became
devoted to her and our other best gal, Trina!

And today, she's still my best friend. 

I've made other best friends over the years (a couple come immediately to mind, and they'll get their own blog dedication soon), and I love and cherish those special friendships.  

You know you're good friends with someone when you have a picture like this laying around.
I love her whole family!

But Rachael... she is my sister. (Not my actual sister, Rachel. THAT was confusing growing up. We ended up referring to them as "Sister" and "Friend." Like, to the point where it was "Jessica! Friend is on the phone!")

True friends have your most hideous photos. They occasionally use them as blackmail.
But they never post the picture on social media, without distorting them first, because they're true friends like that.

We know each other's souls. We know each other's mistakes and each other's questionable records (psssh, not like EITHER of us even HAVE one! WHATever)... 

We spent thousands of hours on the phone (her was that cool see-through one, and she had her "OWN LINE" which was a BIIIG deal), until we could drive. Then, the world was our oyster. 

Prom after party. We were the only ones from our school there, because that's how we rolled.

She's the one who told me I wasn't fat when I had run-ins with cruel kids who called me fat and "blob." I was the one who reminded her that she was pretty when she was taking a medicine that made her skin dry out in patches. 

A true friend joins whatever extracurricular activities you're in, so you can miss school on the same days.

We were the most amazing duo for many years. Superheros, really. And, the rare times that we still get together, we are still the most awesome duo in the room.

Because chunky shoes were "in." And so was my bedazzled Caddy shirt and rose-colored shades.
Whatever. We ROCKED that club every Thursday.

True friends know your "ugly face."

Strengths, vulnerabilities, mistakes, first loves and second loves and third loves, fears, joys, family issues and pet histories... we know it all.

True friends know and love your dog as much as you do. Miss you, Marley!

We had a secret language at one point in our life, and another where we spelled out all the words, and another when we just made up words and were awesome at creating paragraphs that we understood but no one else could.

And another language... "Rach, grab that thing and put it on the thing by the other thing. Then put the thing in that thing on the thing." Yep, we could even decipher that. Probably still could.

 

A true friend will HAUL BUTT to your house to get your National Honor Society collar, almost missing the graduation ceremony, because you forgot it.
You're welcome. :)
(Yes, this picture is us, speeding down a country road to make it to graduation on time.
Because that is how we roll.)

When I broke my foot, she was my chauffeur. 

I believe this was when I almost got in a fight at Sonic (for mouthing off), and she sped off for me.
Thanks, friend. THAT would have been messy...

We were roommates to each other (first in the dorms, then I was the girl on the couch, then I was the girl on the couch again, then we had a house together), and counselors for each other a zillion times. 

Cheers-ing to a clean house. 35th Street. Memories flood in!

We disagreed and argued, and I probably cried but she probably didn't because I'm lame like that... but nothing broke us. 

 

We were also quite crafty and could probably run a multi-billion dollar industry
if either of us could ever stay focused on anything!

We were partners in crime and in tye-dying my couch with Kool-Aid packets. 

(Rachael, if you have that picture, you'd better get it to me asap.)

We talked on the phone and texted, laughing, from rooms on opposite sides of the hallway when a boy wouldn't leave our house and slipped a note under her door because he couldn't get over how beautiful she is. WEIRDO!!!

A true friend helps you clean ashes out of your eyes when you spit in an ash tray like an IDIOT...
even if she DOES think your pain is hilarious.

She sat with me when I was 21 and pregnant. And she loves my "leetle" like her own family. 

This may or may not have been seconds before she dropped baby food and
may or may not have spewed vulgarities at my baby shower. BWAHAHAHAHAH

She lived across the sidewalk from me in one of our many ghetto housing units, and Annie surprised her with a "happy birthday." (Jeff put that together!)

Waiting to say happy birthday to Aunt Rachael!

She supported me when I got engaged to a boy I'd been dating six weeks, and she stood by me when life seemed to be falling apart. 

When I screwed up worse than I ever had, in my entire life, and I was having a literal mental breakdown, SHE is the one I called. And she dropped what she was doing, and came to me. She listened, she loved me, with no judgement. 

I plotted revenge when her heart was broken by a boy. I may or may not have carried out said revenge from time to time, at least in my head. 

I can't talk about most of our memories because we were the craziest people I've ever met. But MAN, did we have fun! And we only reaped the consequences SOME of the time, which is a pretty good ratio...

Hanging out with my Leetle.

We were so smart, and so funny, and so beautiful. We're still so smart and so funny and so beautiful. And though life causes us to be too busy, or too far... she's the best friend a girl could ask for, and I'd hate to go the rest of my life without telling her just how much I love her! 

We are soul sisters. She IS my sister! I like to think I'm the sister she never had. The prettier, smarter, funnier sister.

Just kidding. She's prettier. And probably smarter in some areas. But I'm pretty funny, so I'll take claim to that. 

She let me borrow clothes and was the one who kept me in the loop with bars and friends and new friends and new music. I kept tabs on her keys and knew when to tell her not to rip her hair out. Oh, and kept the creeps away from her, which was sometimes a hard job considering she was always the exotic red-head at the bar.

I think we've been to like 100,000 concerts together.
A true friend dances like crazy with you at all those concerts!

Cheers to best friends, to lifelong friends, to friends who know all the stupid and idiotic and illegal and life-threatening and impulsive and wrong things you've done... but love you anyway. Cheers to friends who let you talk however you want, but hold you accountable for your choices. Cheers to friends who listen to you cry over and over and over and over again about a guy, and tell you what they think, but still love you and support your relationship anyway. 


 Cheers to friends who never tire of hoping for happiness for you, who never get jealous about anything you do or have done, but only want success for you and will cheer you on every step until you reach it. 

Cheers to my best friend, who is all those things and more. 

Because we cool like that.

Rach is getting married in one month from today. And my heart bursts with happiness for her and the lucky guy who snagged her. She's going to make a helluva bride, and I pray for them and their marriage every day. 

LYLAS, Rachael Michelle. Yours is one of the only birthdays I have memorized, which you know is kind of a big deal. :)