In honor of the fact that my Angie is going to be leaving us by the end of the year, I have decided that I need to write about our time together. That; and I recently received a correspondence from her fiancé concerning their relationship. He was kind enough to try and explain some things to me when he didn’t have to, so I feel that our relationship should be talked about. Some of you will understand this while others won’t; in the end Angie and I are as close as any 2 women can be.
We each moved to Orange County within 6 months of each other, we didn’t know each other because Angie went to the “preppy” Jr High, while I went to the “ghetto” one…at least as ghetto as you can get in the O.C. Then we lived in the same apartment complex, and met at the pool as we had some mutual friends there. In the summer of 1992 we talked in our apartment until her mother came and retrieved her, and since then we have been best friends. We discovered that we were going to the same high school and became inseparable. I introduced her to my friends who also would be attending the same school in the fall, and we all spent a great deal of time together. A week or so before school was to start we decided to ride our bikes to somewhere and less than a block from the apartment complex I was hit by a small pick-up truck. Our friend was in front and Angie was behind me…I apparently flew over the truck after hitting the hood with my head while Angie watched the whole thing. When I wasn’t moving after landing on the road Angie ran back to the apartment to get my mother. I was duct taped to a board and taken to the hospital, where they took a lot of x-rays and discovered that I almost shattered my heel. They taped the corner of my eye that had split open, gave me a tetanus shot and sent me home. I didn’t walk too well for a few weeks, but recovered fine. That one incident seemed to cement a relationship between us that has never been broken.
I was somewhat of an outcast in Young Women there, as I was from a very rural area in North Idaho. I wanted someone to talk to at church, so I would bring Angie with me…never really thinking that she would join the church someday. She stood by me through our freshman year, despite my idiotic behavior, and that meant more to both of us than either of us really understood. She moved back to Colorado with her mom shortly after the beginning of our sophomore year. We cried a lot, but wrote and talked to each other weekly. She begged her mom to let her come and stay with us the following summer, and she let her. She went back at the end of the summer with the promise that the next year she would come back for good so that she could be in California for her senior year. For various reasons, her mom brought her back half way through our junior year to live with us. My parents had guardianship of her from that point on, and she has never left me since then. We dealt with so much during those years, and that made us sisters.
We graduated together, we worked together, and we started Jr College together. We finished our general education together and transferred together to the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. We lived in a variety of places during that time, but always together and always a support to each other. We ate ketchup together when we had nothing else to eat, rode the bus to school together when the car broke down, and held each other when the pain of life got the better of us. We came back to California after we both graduated from college. We supported each other when jobs didn’t come and we were living in a 5th wheel in a terrifying part of town. We were all we had for so long, and so we learned to rely on none but each other.
Many people don’t know, but Angie dated Ryane before I did…but when we did begin dating she was supportive and loved me despite everything. She was my Maid of Honor at my wedding. She made me go buy the first pregnancy test I took because she was sure I was pregnant. Of course she was right, and she helped me during the morning sickness and all the other difficulties that came with that pregnancy. She held me when they took my Casey bug away and wouldn’t let me have her back, she held me while I cried when they took her to Loma Linda, and she came to visit her every time she could while she was there. She held me while I cried when I had to give my newborn medication. She cried with me when I had a miscarriage. She cried with me when I got pregnant with Ryan after a year of trying. She has watched my kids when my husband wants to take me on adventures. She helped me pick out my house, and sleeps across the hall from my 4 year old who calls her “my Angie”. She helps me put my kids in bed when my husband has to work, and she keeps me company when my kids are driving me crazy.
We go on adventures together…we have been to Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm, Sea World, The San Diego Zoo, LEGOLAND, and countless other places…and there is always a story to tell afterwards. We quote from rarely seen movies and laugh at each other knowingly, like there is some huge long story to tell when there isn’t. We watch the same tv shows together, and play games together, and do crafts together. We took classes together, and there was rarely a moment when we were seen apart. We have always been a support to one another, through the good times and bad, even when people told her to leave me, she stayed. So here I am, always the one out in front blazing the trail, watching her begin to blaze her own trail on her own adventure. I will admit that I am somewhat saddened by the loss that I will feel when that room down the hall is empty, and she won’t always be here to talk to and take comfort in. But I am so proud of my Angie, she is brave and strong in ways that I never have been, and she has always supported me in everything I have chosen. I will be supporting her in this great new adventure. I will stand by her as her maid of honor, I will cry during her sealing, and I will help her move on into a new life with her husband. Here’s to MY Angie, the best friend and sister a woman could ever have! I love you, and wish to you happy times and noodle salad for all eternity!
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