My best friend, Cindy, is truly one of the MOST amazing people I have ever met! She has a heart the size of Texas and always has the best advice. The advice part sort of comes naturally, and then she took it all the way to the top and got her PsyD!! (Doctor of Psychology) I am ridiculously proud of her!! She is like a sister to me, and my kids call her "Aunt Cindy". She is also their Godmother.
Speaking of the kids... she was also the first one to know that I was pregnant, every time! She was actually with me when I found out I was pregnant with my first. She was at my house visiting, and I told her I thought I was pregnant. We went to the store to get a test and had some other errands to run. I wanted to go home first and take the test, but she wanted to finish our errands!! I was so excited to find out, even though I was almost positive that I was pregnant, and she wouldn't let me go home until we finished our errands!!! I was dying to know!! LOL So we finished, I pouted to entire time, and when we got home I ran to the bathroom to take the test. A few minutes later we were jumping for joy and I was crying hysterically! I WAS PREGNANT!
When I found out I was pregnant with my second, we were in different states, but as soon as I took the test I called and told her, she was the FIRST to hear the news again!! I cried because I remembered the first time, six years earlier, and realized again how much I missed her.
Cindy and I shared a LOT of great times together. We weren't "crazy" kids. We were in Marine Corps ROTC together, and when we first met, she didn't like me. I was an upperclassman, and was the Battalion Commander, in charge of the unit. I carried myself as such and she thought I was a... uh... well, you know. I was strict. I was serious about the unit, it was important to me. I was on Rifle Team, Drill Team and I taught Freshman ROTC. Over the summer I went in and rebuilt the rifle range with another student and our instructors. I also worked on new manuals and rearranged the stock and supply rooms. It was serious business to me. (So serious, in fact, that I joined the Marine Corps my senior year and shipped off to boot camp in the fall of that year!) The other student and I worked the entire summer before our senior year, and we worked hard. This other student, well, he became my boyfriend, and then my husband, and then eventually my ex-husband, but that part of the story comes later. Yeeeah... anyway. Cindy and I worked together on Rifle Team, and started spending more time together, and soon she learned that the hard-nose approach was only for work, and I was not ALWAYS like that, and we became fast friends.
When Cindy went to get her driver's license she needed a vehicle to drive. I told her she could use my truck. (Well, my parent's truck, the one they bought and paid for, but I drove and put gas in it, I paid insurance to drive, but it was not reeeeally MY truck.) Soooo, on the way to the DMV, Cindy was driving, we were almost there, driving past the college, and... a professor pulls out in front of us, hits the truck, takes out the entire driver's side, pushes us off the road, down the bank, past a sign, between two poles... OH MY GOSH!! Cindy did great though! She maneuvered down the embankment like a pro. If I'd been the DMV guy I would have given her a license! She certainly proved she could drive! But we obviously didn't make it there to prove anything to anyone. No, Cindy was not getting her license that day, and I had to call my Dad and tell him that his truck was wrecked.
It all worked out though. My parents were upset but they got over it. It wasn't Cindy's fault after all! The guy pulled out and hit us! We got the truck fixed, and it went on to be wrecked again, and again... and again. No one ever really got hurt though, it was amazing! That truck must have had an angel in the engine.
Once we sneaked out of town to see two Army guys that we were "dating" in Alabama. I was allowed to go, she did not have permission. We told her Grandmother we were going to see them, but she thought they were in town visiting my guy's Mom. Her Grandmother called the house and the Mom told her that he wasn't at home. Busted! That was when I got my first speeding ticket. :o( We never lied to her Grandmother again.
We got a job working at Pizza Hut together, and THAT was a BLAST!! (My middle brother worked there for a while, too and then it was even crazier! LOL I love him to death, too.) We had a great time at work. Part of the story that she hates for me to tell, is that we dressed up as clowns for Kid's Night sometimes. She was actually really good at it! ;o) I loved doing it, she loved it too, but didn't want other people to know she was dressed up like a clown! LOL
We also volunteered at a Fire Department together. She was a Jr. Firefighter and I was on the support team. I got to drive the support truck with all the gear and make sure the firefighters had all their stuff, take care of them when they came out of the fire and whatnot. She got to wear all the gear and fight the fire! It was really cool!!
Cindy was very much into theater and I started working on shows with her. We built sets and worked backstage. My all-time favorite was "Man of La Mancha"! Between the cast and crew, it was awesome! Cindy was the stage manager and I was the house manager for that show. With the others she did a lot of sound and tech stuff. I liked to paint and build.
When I was married to my ex, I called on Cindy a lot for a listening ear. She was in college then, and I would go visit her. I went to quite a few of the frat parties with her and stayed in her dorm, in her friends dorm, in the apartment where she lived, and in the house she eventually moved to. I got to know her friends, and they became my friends, too. I went to see Cindy graduate with her Bachelors degree but my (now ex) husband and I were fighting a lot so I left early to go home and try to work things out with him over the weekend before I had to be back to work that Monday. I missed her graduation. When I got home, I found another woman in my house! She had been staying there with him while I was gone... he'd been having an affair with a co-worker. Cindy was, once again, there to catch me, because I fell hard. This woman was approximately the 10th person he had cheated with over the 8 years we were together. Cindy had been with me through it all but this time I needed her more than ever, and like always she was there!
I felt horrible for missing Cindy's graduation, and even worse when I really regained my senses. Cindy was there through my messy divorce and move back home, my rebuilding process and getting myself back on an even keel. She had moved back home by then, too and it was so great to have her around! Once again we got a job together, working under a contract job through the Department of Juvenile Justice. There were two facilities: residential and day treatment, so we didn't always work side-by-side, but we saw each other a lot.
I eventually left there and went back to school full-time. While in college, I met my husband, who was a Deputy Sheriff at the time. When we got married a year and a half later, Cindy was my Maid of Honor.
She has always loved my children and been there for them, she sends the most amazing gifts- you know, the noisy ones that parents never buy their own children! ;o) My oldest son has gone to stay at her house several times, even flying alone there and back. They also know they can call on her day or night should the need arise. She is irreplaceable.
So, how do you thank a person who listens to you talk for hours? A person who knows you inside and out and loves you despite your flaws and imperfections? A person who has been with you through thick and thin, all the horrible, messed up times in your life and never once walked away- even when everyone else did? She is truly the BEST best friend I could ever have hoped for in all the world. I never imagined, when I met her in high school, that we would be here, twenty years later. I love her SO much! She is amazing, wonderful, sweet, strong, beautiful, SMART, and caring and I don't think I could ever tell her enough how much she means to me and my family.
I try to be a great friend to her in return, but I know I haven't always lived up to my part. I get caught up in my life and my messes and I forget that other people have messes, too. I am trying to do better, so I can fulfill my "best friend" duties. I know I need to call more often! LOL And I have presents that I bought her in Vegas that I still haven't mailed! I'm working on it... because I love her so much, and I don't know what I'd do without her!
P.S. Now that she's married, I can't wait until she has kids so I can spoil them rotten!! (Hint, hint) <3
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