Today I introduce you to my childhood best friend, Michelle. I don’t have many stories to tell you about current Michelle because she lives far away (sad!) and even though we email and talk often (happy!) I can't say our current, mature-ish relationship is quite as interesting as our childhood one.
Michelle and I met when she moved in across the street from me, the summer before the 2nd grade. So yes, we were seven. At the time, I had spiked hair and a tail (HAR!!) and was most likely rocking my sweet t-shirt with the surfboarding T-Rex on it.
*a moment of silence for that t-shirt.*
So, naturally, Michelle thought I was a boy. And I was too shy to open my mouth, so I'm sure she went on believing that for some time. Eventually we got it all sorted out, though, and our friendship bloomed.
The one thing that baffled everyone about our friendship was our secret language. Even WE don't know how it came to be (although we know her dog was involved?... *shrug*). But when you have snoopy parents and siblings around and need a way to talk about American Girl Dolls without them all up in your BIZNASS, you've gotta come up with a secret language. You just do. And ours was the Srados language. The secret is out, but not really. Because I guarantee you it will make no sense to you. Let me see if I can explain. Shorthand Srados dictionary:
Michelle: Sra
Emily: Rah
How are you: Howsarsyou
I don't know: Ahs duns snuh
Etc etc etc. It was secretive, and if you didn't know it, you couldn't play our card game, sorry kid.
A List Of Fads Michelle And I Lived Through
- Trolls
- Marvin the Martian
- Smiley Faces
- "Awesome" blue (which would be the color of the fort we never made)
- Pogs
- Titanic
Michelle and I were (and are-who am I kidding?) quoting machines. If you would ever like a line-by-line retelling of not only Titanic but also Ever After, Friends, Armageddon, or What About Bob?, please feel free to ask.
To recount to you every memory I have with Michelle would be an insanely enormous blog. It would just be an autobiography, because basically every memory I have involves her. Michelle was the one to pass along secret notes to my first-but-not-really-at-all boyfriend. She was there when I called my second-but-still-doesn't-actually-count boyfriend to go on my first date. She was there when I had the glasses and the braces and the hair and she loved me through all those times. She's the one that I laughed with until it hurt (along with her mom, who has THE most contagious laughter ever) and the one that made me feel normal when I definitely wasn't. She taught me that possums are terrifying, laundry is seriously not that hard, to hold my head high, and to have another brownie already.
Without this turning into one big gush fest, I do need to add that current Michelle (aka Sra) is still one of my best friends, and a great person to boot. And she may also be clinically insane.
But so am I. That's why we work.
3 comments:
Let the record show that I was insanely jealous of the glasses-hair combo!! Took me years, and even still never got the fully mature look of having both at the same time.
It's the shirt with the interactive laces! Yay!
I love your friend tributes.
Body Jam. That is all.
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