WWJMCD? Happy Birthday JMC!

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.

“Carved My Name Into His Legaaacyyy…”

Today is Robin’s 26th birthday. This exciting occasion, coupled with the fact that I just finished a midterm yesterday and don’t want to work on my research proposal yet, means that I’m going to tell all of you who are still reading after my long absence what a great best friend I have.

I’m a very lucky person to have been blessed with not only a large, loving family, but amazing friends no matter where I’ve lived. Of the four friends I’m closest to, Robin is the one I’ve spent the most time with because we lived together in some form or another from August 2002 until August 2008.

Robin (or “Rob”, or “H”, or “Achay” when we’re feeling a little multicultural, or “Harry” when I’m really trying to annoy her) and I met at William and Mary during our freshman year. H lived on the floor above me, Taliaferro 2nd, and I liked her immediately because she wasn’t intimidating even though she is one of the smartest people I have ever met. The moment I knew Rob and I were destined to be best friends is actually captured in a photo. We had been spending more and more time together and I think when the photo was taken we were headed out to lunch at the Marketplace and to “do homework” in the Sunken Garden. When I opened the door to my room to let Robin in, as corny as it sounds, I knew we would be best friends forever:

I also thought H was cool because she had a state-of-the-art 1.5 megapixel digital camera, with which this little gem above was taken. She captured the first of about five million times that we've unwittingly worn the same outfit. I can’t tell you how many times Jana, or Musson, or Adam have said to us, “Did you guys do this on purpose?” I can honestly say we’ve never once done it on purpose, but we have come out of our rooms countless times, seen we’re wearing the same thing, and said “Eh, do you care? I don’t care” and gone wherever we were going.

Rob and I lived together and with others all throughout our time at William and Mary. When graduation rolled around and I had to figure out what the heck I was going to do, the easiest part of the decision was to move in to my first real apartment in with H. Dolley Madison Apartments was our home for three years, until this past summer when we had to face facts and realize that we were going to have to live apart when we each started graduate school in the fall. While we both know it’s the right decision, with her commuting to Hopkins in Baltimore and me to VT in Alexandria, there were rivers of tears. Two months later, I still miss her being there every day when I get home to trade coworker stories, make dinner for me (heh...I also miss Dana's dinners when he was over!), cajole me into going running, watch entire seasons of The Office, sing lyrics to songs incorrectly ("Carved my name into his legaaaacyyyyyy"), and (most often) sit in completely harmonious silence in our living room, each on our own couch, staring at our laptops.

Robin is the kind of person who doesn’t come along very often and the kind of friend that you want to keep. She compassionate, patient, deeply sensitive, and incredibly generous. She’s good at everything and brags about nothing. She’s incredibly smart and totally unassuming. She’s one of those people who I love being around because I feel like the best version of myself when I’m with her. Because of Ach, I’m a much healthier eater who knows how to make my own hummus. I’m also more polite, because she has probably the best manners of any person I’ve ever met. Robin and I can have a great time laying on her bed talking about nothing, or memorizing all the lyrics to Eminem by playing the song over and over while we read and rap the lyrics, or deciding to host Faux Thanksgiving for 20 people when we’ve never cooked a turkey before. It doesn’t matter. It's all fun.

So, Happy Birthday, Robin Harrison, and thanks for being my best friend and all-time roommate. You always let the dishes pile up in the sink just like I did and I love you for it. Here’s a photographic retrospective of some of my favorite memories so far.