Day 2: The person you have been closest to the longest

Of the people who might be reading this, I know two girls who are probably thinking, "she's going to write about me."  To be quite technical, I have been close to and have known my cousin, Maggie, the longest considering we're family and I've known her since some time around April 29, 1987 when she graced the world with her presence :o)  But, Mags, I've got another day of blogging planned to talk about you!

So let me tell you why I love 4-H; Katie Francoeur.  I met my best friend the summer after Sophomore year of high school as a Pineapple. Small break for a song: "I am a P, I am a P-I, I am a P-I-N-E-A-P-P-L-E, and I have P-R-I-D-E  in my C-A-B-I-N, I'm a P-I-N-E-A-P-P-L-E!"


It was my first summer as a camp counselor and I was in the Pineapple cabin (the theme was fruit) with my co-counselor Katie.  Needless to say that summer, camp rocked!  Unfortunately, I can't post pictures from our camp experiences because they're all in my scrapbook and taking pictures of pictures equals blur. 


Katie and I spent two weeks of the summer, for three years as counselors together and there are many memories to go along with that.  For instance, our tradition of matching t-shirts began sometime during these years.  By the way, Katie, I am currently looking at old camp pictures and realizing this need to wear matching items started before the t-shirt craze; we used to wear matching bandannas at camp!  BUT, for those of you who don't know the story of the matching shirts, it started when Katie and I went on a double date at the age of 17 wearing matching shirts.  That's right, we're THAT cool!  Since then, we've acquired matching Michelle Branch shirts from the concert we went to, matching UW-Whitewater shirts where Katie is pursuing her Masters degree, matching Oregon State shirts where I am pursuing my undergrad, matching "Teach Me How To Bucky" shirts, matching "Feelin' So Fly Like a Cheesehead" shirts, and finally, matching "Teach Me How to Raji" shirts; all to represent how awesome Wisconsin Football is!  We both love Wisconsin football and text each other during all the games we watch; it's the closest we get to watching it together!

Wondering what is going on in this picture?  Well let me tell you...
Halloween 2009, Katie came out to Oregon to visit and dress like a pirate with me.  We were given free lanyards at the first bar we went to that night.  What the heck were we going to do with lanyards on Halloween?  The best idea we could come up with was to hook ourselves together and see if we could stay connected the ENTIRE night. This also shows that we followed our mothers' advise and "stayed together (quite literally), safe, and had fun!"  So did we succeed in our mission?  Why yes we did!  It involved some awkward maneuvering in the bathroom and clotheslining a girl on the dance floor.  But that wasn't our fault; she shouldn't have tried cutting between two people who were tied together.  This night also involved another one of our great ideas; a deck of shot cards.  Katie's bartender friend gave us recipes of awesome shots which we wrote out on note cards.  Then we would fan the cards out, pick one, and take the recipe up to the bar to buy our round of shots.  As you can see, our brilliancy really shined through this night :o)


Katie and I also maintain that we have one of the healthiest long distance relationships ever!  Of course we miss each other (yay for me finally downloading Skype!), but we constantly communicate via phone, text, email, and facebook; the joys of technology!  There are a bagillion more memories to share from our friendship, but you all get the picture; mine and Katie's friendship ROCKS! 


Katie, you are my best and longest friend and I love you very much!!!