Five Friends

This morning I forgot to set out chicken to thaw... I may or may not have done this on purpose... and asked Dan if he would like to have Chinese food for dinner. Dan, like myself, has never turned down crab Rangoon's, garlic chicken, and friend rice, so of course he didn't mind stopping by Uncle Chen's on his way home! My Favorite!

The absolute best part of any Chinese meal, besides the easy clean up and full belly, is when we get to open the fortune cookies. I've always loved getting my fortunes. I remember my favorite one ever, the one that I had taped to my dashboard for over a year. Unfortunately Mom decided to write "White Fence" on top of this fortune on a trip to Dale Hollow because she knew I would be driving home by myself and wanted to make sure I turned at the White Fence. I couldn't believe she did that, I was pissed and remember getting in my car and seeing it, not believing that she ruined one of my favorite treasures!

The past two times we've had Uncle Chen's I've received the same fortune. "Distant Friends Will Soon Be Back in Your Life." I wish for nothing more than this fortune to come true. As Soon As Possible!

Now here's the story of "The Five Friends"

It all happened Senior Year of High School. Some of us were friends, some of us were enemies. All I knew about Jesika was that she gave me evil eyes every day in Spanish Class freshman year... and I never really saw much of her after that. Student Council forced us to work together every day, I don't think either of us were that thrilled about it, but I will always be thankful for that. Those 4th period planning periods for the execs were some of my favorite times in high school. Sure, we did a lot of planning of the school events, but we also did a lot of gossiping, we played a lot of WaterSlide Slalom (Kaitlin saw a lot of the "WAAAA, You Fell Out" message on her screen, we made up a few cheer leading dances, and of course we ate all kinds of food. Our favorite was the applesauce cake, which I am honestly considering as my wedding cake! We each had our day when we took the lunch trays back, we made Jamie take them on Thursdays because it was mashed potato day and of course it was the messiest! Jes, Kaitlin, Holly, and I had the greatest time in Mrs. Ballard's classroom and I will always remember those funny times that we had. The greatest part was Amanda was in some really silly class at the time and she spent most of her time visiting with us. I really wish we could go back! Graduation came, we had the greatest summer together, and the five friends were separated.

During college we all came home quite a bit. We always tried to celebrate holidays together, and birthdays. The girls threw me the greatest Harry Potter birthday party for me with a Hogwarts cake, wands, and glasses. They made sure to tell me that constructing the cake almost ruined their friendship. I was pretty impressed and so excited that these girls threw me my first themed birthday party... at the age of 19!

And we always had our summers... mostly spent either floating on a raft at Jesika's pool or drinking beers on a tailgate at the softball fields. We'd still drink in Paul and Theresa's basement and have John make us pancakes. Every summer when we were together it was like nothing had changed.

This past summer we all only got to get together once, over Memorial Day weekend... and we hadn't seen each other in a year. I absolutely loved being with them all and miss when we were together constantly. I really took that time for granted and wish I could just get a little bit of it back.

We've all grown into real life people, Kaitlin sent us to good news today that she got a job, so we are all working citizens. Crazy how we grew up so quickly, but I know if we all got together right now we'd be acting like our silly selves, thinking we were back in that classroom laughing and getting yelled at by Mrs. Hankinson from across the way. All I know is that I am so excited these are the girls that are going to be my bridesmaids. I can't imagine not having them there with me on the big day.

Oh, how I hope my fortune comes true. I need my distant friends back in my life.