Janabanana, best friend of mine since the beginning the century, celebrated her 26th birthday on Friday. This post in her honor is a few days late, but for a good reason. I spent Jana's birthday with her doing lots of quintessentially "Jana" activities. First, I drummed up some PR for the bake sale she had in the lobby of my office to raise money for her team that is walking in the 39-mile Avon Walk for Breast Cancer (she spent two days baking, I spent 10 minutes walking around my office eating cupcakes and making contented noises; this is a division of labor I can get behind). We moved on to getting manicures, during which Jana kept our manicurists entertained with stories of her preschool class. We made a stop by her co-worker's house where J has been dogsitting for Luke and Bobo all week. Then, we stopped in to see my favorite baby, Sarah Brodie, who fell in love with Jana immediately and let Jana feed her two minutes after they were introduced. We capped off the evening with wine and dinner with Todd and Denise.
Since we all know that actions speak louder than words, I'm not sure that I can adequately express how all of the activities we did on her birthday speak volumes about the kind of person Jana is. Baking cupcakes, raising money, happily driving all over creation to take care of pets, effortlessly getting babies to fall in love with her (Miriam agreed that Jana is probably the blondest person Sarah has met in her first 7.5 months), and then having a blast at a family birthday celebration. Jana is a very sunny person by default (and her outfits tend to convey this=)) and this sunny-ness is my favorite thing about her. She is in touch with her inner child more than any person and I know, which is why teaching preschool is the perfect career for her. She is the rare person whose career path in life seemed obvious from the first time I met her and I'm so proud of her for following that dream and turning it into reality.
As someone who is far less sunny, Jana is an essential person for me to have around. Much like my mom and her friend Bean, Jana and I are a definite opposites attract situation. She is the consummate Girl Scout, incredibly capable in almost every situation, always prepared to pull anything I might need out of her purse, always enjoying cooking/sewing/baking, teaching preschool during the week and middle school youth group at church on Sundays, watching CNN in the mornings before she leaves for work. I'm just trying to get makeup on in the mornings before work, I'm much less of a joiner and more of a loner, ready to drop a cuss word (when did this happen?), and I'm lucky if my purse contains my keys and my wallet when I need them. Despite our differences, we are the best of friends because at our core are similar values, a dedication to the public good, a love of great girlfriends and conversations, a weakness of mexican food and red wine, and a tendency to get a more than a little wound up about stuff (heh). Also, we are both up for random things and we always have a great time doing them together. Like when I decided I needed to try camping again last fall and she didn't hesitate to lead that expedition and and we slept in a tiny tent and ate an 8-pack of hot dogs and two bottles of wine. Or, when she decided we needed to ride that damn inflatable banana in the Bahamas and I went with her (albeit with trepidation) on the craziest, most water-in-my-face ride ever.
We've been friends since high school and best friends since college and I know we'll never lose track of each other. It's one of those deeply comforting things that make life amazing.
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