TODAY is an important day.

So, today is a pretty cool day, to me. And to a few other people, but I am the only one you should be concerned with right now. Or ever, maybe…
Today is the 24th of February and it is the 30th birthday of one of my best friends. Thirty. Wow. It seems so young now. But, really, it’s just a number, and I know that. What really matters is what you accomplish in life and how much it means to you. Well, this guy has accomplished a lot of awesome things and there are lots of things for him to be proud of. But personally, I think he should be most proud of being my friend. He probably isn’t, but I’m just saying that he should.
So, in honor of this friend, I’d like to go back in time and talk about our friendship. For the sake of simplicity, we’ll call him ‘Triscuit’.

Triscuit and I met through a boyfriend of mine, who isn’t my boyfriend anymore, but I am still friends with (so we’ll call him my ‘ex’). A group of us went to a lame concert in Dallas (Flickerstick, anyone?) in the summer of 2001. I would like to state, for the record, that neither of us actually wanted to be at this show, thank you. Triscuit went to high school with my ex and he told us about this local band he was in. So, we went to see him at his next show and they were great. After, we all talked and Triscuit and I almost immediately hit it off. I could see why he and my ex got along so well and he starting hanging out more with us and our friends. But what ended up happening was Triscuit and I would alienate ourselves from the group and go off in our own little world, making each other laugh. We really went over the top a lot, and it was apparently really, really, really annoying to people. But we didn’t care because it was so funny and we were young and inconsiderate.
One of my favorite times with Triscuit during the beginning of our friendship was an afternoon we went to a Mexican restaurant together and sat outside. We drank Coronas and smoked Parliament Lights (he is officially credited with my former smoking habit) and talked about life, love and the pursuit. We probably also ate and we definitely made friends with a blackbird outside that day. I can’t remember anything specific we said, but I have a great picture of the two of us from that day and when I think of it, I know that’s when he and I broke through the friend barrier on the way to besties.
Being that he is a ‘he’ and I am a ‘she’ and that we got along so well, there was a brief moment in time where we dated. Was it great? Yeah, at the beginning. Was it right for us? No way. But at least we figured it out and found our way back to the friendship we knew was right for us. After dating, our friendship went through a roller-coaster phase. At some points we were close and others it seemed as though we might never speak again. But through it all, we still knew, deep down, that our friendship was unlike anything else. Well, honestly, I knew that, but he might have been like, ‘Whew. It’s so nice to have a break from her!’
I always made it a point to tell anyone I dated that I was friends with my ex and one of my best friends is a guy. If that person had any problem with it, they didn’t have to stay.
When I met my future-husband, it took Triscuit almost 7 months to meet him. And when they finally met, it was at my parent’s house on Christmas. I knew my boyfriend was really skeptical of this guy friend of mine, but after they finally met, the two of them totally hit it off (I knew they would). Knowing how Triscuit felt about him was almost as important as what my parents thought.
Months after that, Triscuit got a job at the same place I worked, so we got to hang out almost every day. It was amazing. At this time, I was good friends with quite a few people in the office, but it really wasn’t until Triscuit showed up on the scene that we all formed this tight knit group. He’s was like the super glue to our click. He was just what we needed to push our friendships to that next level. The next level is where, even though some of us didn’t work together anymore, we still talk and hang out on a regular basis. Where we all feel comfortable staying at the other’s homes and depend on each other…an extended family.
And now, here we are. About 9 years later and a million more laughs to go. Since we used to pride ourselves on alienating people with our jokes, I’m going to take a second and alienate anyone reading this so I can selfishly put some things down that make me think of Triscuit and smile.

Playstation.
“Hey. We really appreciate you coming out.” – Robin
Hospitals suck*. *Especially when you aren’t doing heroine.
Fun second.
Sublime – yuck!
The ‘I love golf’ song
The swimming pool ‘trick’ you are going to teach our kids someday.
Drive-though fights & TGIF fights over wine.
My August birthday.
Self-composed cell phone rings
Christmas service with your family.
Outer space.
Shells on a stick.
Piggy back ride. "Everything is good!"

Triscuit: Happy 30th Birthday! I love that we still alienate ourselves from people, but now we have such an awesome group of friends that will do it with us.
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