My Best Friend

Happy Monday! This weekend, I hosted a going away party for my BEST FRIEND in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD....Katy Hacker Cracker! Cracker really isn't part of her name, I just call her that sometimes.

Katy has decided after being and RN for the last 3 years (I think) that she is going to expand on her culinary expertise! Unfortunately for me, her endeavors are taking her St. Louis, MO to Austin, TX!! While I am very excited for her and to go visit her, I really don't want her to leave. She is leaving this week to live with a guy name Raul who apparently has a spoon and a bean masher. That is what I have heard at least. She will be studying vegan cooking...I am not a fan but whatever floats her boat. So, Friday, despite the rain, we had a little bbq for her! The irony is, she doesn't eat meat so we had to grill her some veggie kabob which I think tided her over....until she was super hung over on Saturday morning. I love the girl to death but man I think she gets the worst hangovers I have ever seen in my life. It was a nice little house party reminiscent of the kind we used to have in high school. Oddly enough, the guest list consisted of a bunch of people that were probably at my house 10 years ago!

To be clear, I think all of my friends are AMAZING! Like I stated before, they wouldn't be my friends if I didn't think that about them and I think they feel the same way. Katy is probably the oldest friend that I have. I remember meeting on the "short bus" (not because we were "special" but because there were only 6 kids from our neighborhood that rode the bus at that time) when we were in 3rd grade. We were both new to the neighborhood and to the school. While we had different teachers, we still became friends through the daily rides and four square games on the play ground. We had sports in common and the fact that we didn't live in the same town as our school, we didn't have many options of people to play with. We were kind of stuck with each other. As we progressed through grade school, we became even better friends, we were in the same, class, played volleyball together and even the same instrument in band. Then her mom let her switch, my mom wouldn't:(. We played the same sports through middle school and remained extremely close until our Freshman year. We rarely fought, with the exception of silly little girl stuff. There was period of time that we weren't friends in high school and it sucked. Water under the bridge! We grew close again and have really never looked back. Katy was the first person there when I found out my dad was sick. She stuck by our family through that horrible expereince. Even though we went to different colleges, and had really different schedules, we still got together when we were at home for the standard night before Thanksgiving parties. I road tripped to SEMO a couple of times and Katy made the trip to Murray as well. She is the best type of friend anyone could ask for! We have had so many great times over the last 17 years! She truly is like a 3rd sister to me! I don't know what I would do without her as my best friend. She is always up for a great time and is extremely entertaining!

I wish Katy, my best friend, the best of Luck in Texas! Come home with an accent and a Real Texas Cowboy! Sadly enough, unless your vegan meals come with a side of chicken....I am not interested!

Eat, Drink and be Mary:)