Oh My Gosh! Did you just call me "Grown Up"?

Did you honestly believe that once I found out you were reading my blog that you would escape being forever immortalized in my blog? 

So, as you all know - anyone who's played an important part in my life, at one time or another become the stars of their own blog.

This blog is truly written with all the love in my heart, as I devote it to my former BFF & his bride, "the chick from the marina."  (I had to throw that in there, because she just found out that was my only point of reference for her, for the longest time..)

You didn't read that wrong - yes, HE is my "former" BFF, but he got married & got himself a new BFF.
It's all good.  That's how it's supposed to be!

Once upon a time, most of my friends were men.  It's just what worked for me.

I wasn't a very good dater & I always seemed to get along better with men than women.  The only problem with having mostly male friends is that their girlfriends don't buy that you're just friends & get all jealous and icky.


Dan-O is one of the very few people on the planet who has actually earned the right to point his finger and laugh at me.  He's been around entirely too long & truly knows me "when".  No problem there, because I know him "when" as well!  We know each other's families & secrets - the idiots we've dated, the roommates - the dirt.  Admittedly, Dan-O probably has more dirt on me than I have on him - but that's just because he had the audacity to be the responsible one!  Hmmpf!

In all honesty, in my 20's it was very important to know that there really is no such thing as the "designated drunk driver," which is the title my former roommate bestowed upon herself.  So thanks for keeping me alive, Dan-O. 

Most of the time, his past girlfriends HATED me.  Partially because I'm ridiculously protective over my friends.  If I saw an idiot headed his way - I made sure she was well aware that "the Jenn does NOT go away" - know it, learn it, love it.
Dan-O was always so kind & generous.  I hated him being taken advantage of.

By the same token, Dan-O was always around too.  He made sure undeserving, potential suitors were humiliated and sent packing.  Most of the time without my direct knowledge.  It was quite funny, though I may not have thought so at the time.

No monkey business - EVER - just sincere friendship.  He watched my back, I watched his and whenever one of us had an event to go to that we didn't want to embarrass ourselves by bringing the person we may have been seeing at the time along, we were each other's date.  That surely confused a lot of people, especially his brother.

Sadly, I had to bring one of those not up to par dates to Dan-O's wedding because, well - he had his own date.  :)

I, of course, got the eye roll for that sub-standard wedding date, but whadda ya gonna do, right?

I had the absolute pleasure of my two dear friends coming for a visit last week with their little family.

That wouldn't sound like such a big deal in some cases, but they now live far, far away in North Carolina.  If we see or speak to each other, it's through a Christmas card, Facebook or an extremely rare phone call.  Life gets in the way, sadly enough.

It was a fabulous time of catching up - reminiscing about the good old days when we were single and crazy.  The silliness of my former roommates & the accompanying memories of mayhem & jaw dropping crazies that ensued during those days.  Wondering where everyone else is, and feeling lucky to have ended up being the "normal" ones. (yeah, I use "normal" lightly - don't worry)

Between the revelations that Michele was known to me as "the chick from the marina" and that I was thought to have been a "grown up" we had many laughs.

I think Michele now forgives me for continually giving Dan the business about the pool table in the dining room & we've definitely grown to realize that Dan-O or not, we could have ended up friends anywhere else on the planet.

At the end of a visit (that went much too quickly), I knew - once again, that Michele is a pretty cool chick.  She's in fact NOT at all from "the marina" and I'm in fact, NOT at all nearly as "grown up" as she thought.  :)

All in all, it was wonderful to see that all these years later - my former BFF's new BFF is as awesome and amazing as he is & I just love them both to death.  

...and their little kids too :)

Thank you for reading my blog!

Big giant smoochies to you all...  I'll be setting off to vacay in a few days.  Please read the old stuff... there's gotta be something worth reading there :)

~Jenn