Happy Birthday

I was right: I own five books by Binchy. They are Scarlet Feather, Tara Road, Circle of Friends, Light a Penny Candle, and Echoes. So good! Oh, and I own a collection of short stories by multiple authors, including Binchy. I also own three books by Sarah Vowell and two books by Madeleine L'Engle. My collection is not what I would call varied. But I don't care because I love my books.

Tomorrow (May 1st) is the birthday of one of my best friends, Double G. I am tempted to post embarrassing pictures of her to celebrate, but I am afraid of the retaliation that could result, so I will restrain myself. I have known Double G since we were freshmen in high school, so we have known each other for almost 14 years. I am sure if that calculation is incorrect she will let me know because she is a math genius. (Not like that is a hard calculation, but she really is brilliant at math.) Of those approximately 14 years, Double G and I only lived in the same town for the first three. After that, she went to college about an hour away, and then when I graduated from high school a year later, I moved about 12 hours away. Then Double G moved to Wisconsin, and I moved to Nebraska, and then Double G moved to California, and I moved to Minnesota. Yet Double G has always been there for me, and I hope she knows that I have always been there for her and will continue to be.

When Double G graduated from high school, I spent a lot of time during her senior year writing a book about our times together. In order to put the book together, I had to call Double G from time to time and ask her strange questions like, "When did we take that trip to Sioux Falls?" and "What was the name of the guy you had a crush on sophomore year?" (Ok, I didn't really have to ask that second question because I know the answer: D@n Rez@c.) Despite the fact that Double G is much smarter than me, she did not suspect anything based on my odd questions. But now, every time I call her to ask her about random facts, she is very suspicious. I suppose her suspicion is reasonable, but it is funny. The thing is that Double G probably knows more about me and my life than anyone else, so she is the only one will know weird things like the name of the guy in high school who tried to give himself the nickname The Italian Stallion.

I don't know why we have been able to be such good friends. It doesn't make sense to me because of the three years that we lived near each other, we were really only good friends for two of those years, and after that we have always been so freaking far apart. But for some reason, something kept us together. And I am glad to have Double G in my life.

She's the pope of chili-town.