1985

In the fall of 1985 my family moved from Clovis, CA (located in the very armpit of the San Joaquin Valley) down to Westlake Village--arguably one of the ritziest towns in Ventura County. Have you ever seen the Beverly Hillbillies? Well, Westlake Village wasn't quite Beverly Hills--and we weren't exactly the Clampetts--but by my calculations we were only off by a rope belt and a kettle of laundry or two.

We moved to Westlake exactly 3 weeks into my freshman year, which made the whole thing ideal, really. Sooo many fantastic memories of sitting alone eating lunch in the quad, occasionally heading off for totally superfluous trips to my locker--just to have something to do. Good times. But then just when I thought I'd be the pathetic, lonely girl forever.....God took pity on me.

Because 24 years ago, practically to the day, I found a friend. We were in P.E together, running some pretty embarrassing times around a dusty track. I recognized her from my English class. I sidled up to her and used my best (my only) friend pick-up line: "Hey, do you know what time it is?" Encouraged by her polite if breathless reply, I launched into a conversation about our shared English class. And had she been any more aerobically fit, she probably would have just picked up the pace and left me in her dust. But thanks to her asthma, we became best friends instead. Apryl is a lot of things, but she has never been a world class athlete. Just one of the many things we have in common. Other things we had in common in 1985:

We lived on the same street, in the same model of home, in the same bedroom. Spooky.

We loved hanging out after school, making cookies. Hershey's chocolate chocolate cookies. We made several batches a week. It is a wonder we didn't weigh 300 lbs each.

We were both complete prudes. And proud of it.

Towards the end of freshman year, I convinced her to try out with me for the school's new Dance Team. Such a dear. She may not have had all the right moves, but the girl sure knew how to wear a unitard. I have suffered from figure-envy ever since. Proving her total BFF-ness, she never made fun of me for being on the dance team. And she had plenty of opportunities.

Our 20 year high school reunion is in a few weeks, and neither of us are going. Bad timing for the both of us. We are a little bit disappointed, and just a little bit relieved, I think. We had our own little reunion this June (see photos above) and we did what we always do when we are together--We had a great time laughing, crying, eating, talking into the wee hours of the morning, and laughing some more. Apryl is one of only a handful of people who can make me laugh that hard --I blame her and Kelly for my heart condition. (She does a wicked impression of me talking while wearing my retainer. I tell you, it literally kills me.)

Looking back on the past 24 years of laughter and tears--through all of the good and the bad times we've shared--I must admit-- I don't think we have ever gone jogging together since that P.E. class freshman year.

****Post edit*****

Having just remembered that I grew up hearing from my father that Bakersfield (my birthplace, and his) is the "armpit of California", I must here acknowledge that Clovis is more like that sweaty place in the back of your knees.