Thursday, July 05, 2007

26

I had a *great* time with two *great* friends last night.

First, an adventure. I went to go see Erin and Jer (and Ella and Aidan) last night... and I GOT LOST in Niverville. Erin told me the address, and I knew vaguely where it *might* be - and I'd seen pictures of the house - so I thought I'd be fine. Um, yeah. Not only is that new development neighbourhood HUGE, but all the houses look remarkably similar. I actually got lost in Niverville. Insert thousands of jokes here.

I made it there, and I had a wonderful walk/talk with Erin. There's something very, very special about friends you've known forever. That girl has been through so much with me, and I with her - dating back to junior high, when we rode the same bus to school every day (the COOL BUS, of course) and analyzed our fellow bus riders' dreams each morning, to high school she made me go hug Jer to get one of his little 'warm fuzzy' yarn pieces to add to her Valentine's Day necklace, and to post-high-school when we sat on her couch for hours with our hands on her stomach waiting for Ella to kick. I love friends who you can be real and honest and absolutely authentic with. I missed her. And I love having her around again. She made my day by emailing me yesterday.

And speaking of friends you've known forever, I continued my little tour of southeastern Manitoba last night by stopping in to see Kristen and Jonny in St. Adolphe. I did not get lost. And Kristen and I planned out all kinds of details for our wedding photography - and I did a very poor job of being sympathetic about her pregnancy nausea (hey, she knew what she was getting into! LOL). Kristen and I have been friends since we were both the 'new kids' at church - probably around Grade 5 or 6. Later, we formed a fabulous foursome with Jen and Catherine and I have many, many memories of our various adventures. Come to think of it... We've been friends since I was dating Ryan and Jen was dating Jonny... Then Catherine dated Ryan and Kristen married Jonny... And I'm actually not sure how on earth those girl friendships survived into adulthood. Crazy. It's a total honour to have such a special friend do our wedding pictures.

I knew for sure that we'd made the right decision when she asked about how to manage my energy level on the day of the wedding, to keep me healthy. I suggested a 'secret signal' that involves her doing something that makes her look incredibly foolish. She politely declined.

Look at me, all nostalgic on my birthday. Over breakfast at Cora's this morning, I was remembering my 16th birthday - a full decade ago. Our whole big youth group left early that morning, on our way to volunteer in West Virginia. I spent the entire day sandwiched between Ryan and Craig in a fifteen-passenger van (on the front bench seat, so our chaperones could WAY over-supervise Ryan and I... geez), and everyone sang to me as they presented me with an ice cream cone with a sparkler stuck in the top at McDonald's somewhere near Minneapolis. It was a very good birthday.

And just for fun... Here's the group shot from West Virginia!
Hint: I'm still skinny and blonde.


Last year on my birthday, I was in Montreal with Emily and Christine - doing the Jazz Festival thing, going shopping, skinny dipping at Christine's cabin in the mountains, and getting my tattoo. And I wrote a list of 25 things I'd learned by the time I turned 25 (check out the blog archives from July 2006 if you missed it). In honour of this new birthday, I was going to create a new list of 26 things that are going to be awesome about being 26. But I started and it was stupid, because there are so many very obvious things that are going to be awesome in my life in the very near future.

So we'll leave it there, with my nostalgic ponderings, and simply enjoy the present :)

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7 Comments:

At July 05, 2007 12:29 PM, Blogger Erin said...

Happy, happy, happy birthday, sweet friend! I won't be able to come tonight due to all the stuff going on, which is really disappointing for me, but necessary! I hope you have a fabulous year with all the great things that are going to happen. Thank you so much for being my shoulder to lean on yesterday. It was truly a blessing and very comforting.

 
At July 05, 2007 1:46 PM, Blogger ka said...

OMG - I hadn't realized that 16 was a decade ago until you actually put that into words. Oy vay.

For my 16th, my 3 best girlfriends threw me an awesome surprise party. They hid the vehicles, but forgot to hide the shoes. All that work for nothing. I'm still incredibly tight with one of them, too. And those relationships are special.

Though all close girlfriends are awesome. Whether you've known them forever, or whether you thought they were kind of the ithcy-bay one in the new office you were working at, but actually turned out to be really great person, and an even better friend. :)

Happy Birthday lady... :)

 
At July 05, 2007 2:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

A very HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Lindsay! Enjoy your day! You are a blessed person with so many friends PLUS a wonderful family.

 
At July 05, 2007 2:31 PM, Blogger Lindsay said...

You did NOT just call me a bitch on my bday... :D

 
At July 05, 2007 2:31 PM, Blogger Lindsay said...

Marilyn, are you including yourself in my 'wonderful family'? :)

I am blessed indeed.

 
At July 05, 2007 5:52 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hadn't thought of our family in that comment but I'll accept it - why not?! It's a day for extravagance!

 
At July 06, 2007 8:52 AM, Blogger ka said...

I never said you WERE. I said I THOUGHT you were kind of itchy-bay. We've had this discussion many times...

Besides. I said TWO nice things after that. What more could you ask for??

I know. This is why you love me. :)

 

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