Friday, August 14, 2009

Happy Birthday Nicole!!


I have five girlfriends that have been everlasting. Today is one of their birthdays. Happy Birthday Nicole. (She's the classy one on the left.)

This wonderful woman has been a part of my life for seventeen years. Now that might not seem like a long time to most of you but it is extraordinary for me. No, I’m not so difficult that I cannot keep friends. It is because as a child my family moved. A lot. And I didn't have the chance to make solid friends.

I grew from a teenager into an adult with her by my side. We were wild. Really wild. Yet never got into a detrimental situation because she constantly had my back. As I did hers. In fact she took me in during the most destructive time of my life to help save me from myself. And to pay her back for all these wonderful years I want to share a story. One of my favorites.

Several of us decided to host a “real” party at Nicole’s. We had impromptu parties all the time but wanted to have a planned blow out. We had the classy hors d'oeuvres; pizza rolls, cheese puffs and of course fruit dip. Then there was the horde of alcohol. Beer, rum, tequila, vodka and the all time favorite Goldschlager. I swear I have no idea why we liked hot cinnamon schnapps with flakes of gold in it. And we didn’t mix it. We used is as a straight shot. Mmmm expensive red hots liquefied.

For such a classy soirée jell-o shots was a must. No one wanted to waste good vodka on jell-o shots so we had the bright idea to use Banana Rum instead with cherry flavored jell-o. This rum had been in the apartment for months. And being young college kids this was saying a lot. Basically it was so potent nothing you mixed it with made it possible to drink. Yet we knew jell-o would do it. Yeah, no.

The party was rocking. But not a soul would drink the jell-o shots as one person had tried one and spit it out due to the banana rum and the fact that we used too much. Not to be deterred half way into the night Nicole decided she was not going to be wasteful. We both have issues with being wasteful and it was said more than once on this eventful night, I’m going to finish this whole thing. She picks up a cup of jell-o and shudders one down like an oyster. Not so bad she claims. So I chuck one. It was bad but left a very warm feeling in the belly. So we have another. And another. And a few more. By this point the only people left are the apartment mates and other drunk people who have pulled up some carpet for the night. For embarrassment reasons this is very lucky for Miss Nicole and I as we had decided that we just had to dance to Erasure – Chains of Love. Not such a big deal except Nicole kicked the wall and broke a toe and a friend threw a cheese puff at me and I hit the ground as if a brick had cracked my skull.

Not only did she “play" through the pain. She stayed up to clean and got up early the next morning to cook breakfast for the entire house. Nicole was the mother hen and took care of us when we didn’t know how to take care of ourselves.

If ever I need a pick me up I can think of her and all the times we have shared. There are friends we have that are great and then there are friends that make your world do a positive 180 with a simple phone call. Nicole is one of these friends. I am blessed to have her in my life. As adults we are almost completely different yet she is the friend who has always understood me and loves me anyway.

Once again Happy Birthday Nicole and be thankful I didn’t share the story of King Henry’s Feast. Or Epcot. Or the time you caught your hair on fire. Or better yet the time you caught your but on fire at my 30th.

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