We’re celebrating 20 years this August. No, not the hubby and I. Damn, that would make me even older than I am. I’m talking about my best friend and I. I’m not sure if 20 years is silver, gold or maybe some random metal on the periodic table, but if I had my way, it would be alcohol. No, not because we are alcoholics or anything like that. It’s because…well…let me explain. It’s a funny story, keep reading.
We met the first day of school my sophomore year of college. I had an assigned roommate that I had never met before and on the first day of school someone knocked on the door looking for her. It was my soon-to-be BFF. When I told her my roommate wasn’t home, she asked where I was from and I said, “Long Island, NY”.
She said, “Oh, my boyfriend is from Long Island.”
We laughed and I asked where she was from, she replied, “Pennsylvania” and I said, “Oh my boyfriend is from Pennsylvania!”
We talked about how funny that was and how we could have car-pooled if we knew each other. Then, she went off back to her room.
The next day, she knocked on the door again. My roommate wasn’t home again but when I opened the door, my soon-to-be BFF was crying and I was wiping the tears from my own eyes. “Why are you crying?” I asked.
“My boyfriend was cheating on me and we just broke up last night.”
I couldn’t help but laugh when she looked at me and asked, “Why are YOU crying?” and I replied, “My boyfriend cheated on me and we just broke up last night.”
We looked at each other, cracked up from the insanity of the situation that both of our boyfriends were cheaters and went and grabbed a drink together. Our first time hanging out, we toasted our crazy lives over cheap bear and wondered what would happen next.
For the past 20 years we have toasted our crazy lives and wondered what happens next. We have been through graduation, jobs, marriage, divorce (mine), moves, new jobs, new husbands (just for me, she kept hers all these years!), deaths and births and through it all we laugh. We laugh harder together than we ever could apart.
And tomorrow she comes to visit. I have the cheap beer waiting for her and a laundry list of memories to laugh about. I’m sure they’ll be even a longer list we create as well.
Happy Anniversary friend. I’m eternally grateful to that cheating boyfriend…