Ode to Virginia

Leaving Montreat 1998

Virginia, me and Marisa 1999 - after Key West trip

I found out a couple a weeks ago that my oldest friend in the whole world got engaged and is getting married in Atlanta this May! I am so thrilled for her because she is such a special person in general and especially to me. We grew up in the same church and met in the first or second grade. She is one of those people who you know will always have your back. So in honor of my oldest friend in the history of my friends I thought I would do a blog entry all about the things I love about her. She will turn 30 on January 1st, so I decided to write about the 30 things I love the most about Virginia:

1. I love that she is my oldest friend.
2. I love that we have the same middle name (Elizabeth)
3. I love that we sang in the choir together from early elementary school through high school
4. I love her perfect teeth
5. I love how sentimental, genuine and thoughtful she is
6. I love how she was my partner in crime growing up – we had our share of troubled moments which we can laugh about now
7. I love that she spent two years in Africa making herself a better person and the people whose lives she touched
8. I love how she loves how q-tips feel in your ear – just like me
9. I love her parents and how fun of a basketball coach her dad was to our team
10. I love how she makes me belly laugh
11. I love how she made me laugh so hard one time that I peed my pants
12. I love how we played in her life size outdoor doll house
13. I love how we used to share clothes
14. I love how we were confirmed together and were able to share that spiritual time together
15. I loved singing “Stars Are For Those Who Lift Their Eyes” with her in the bathroom at Christmastime at P.F. Changs because the acoustics were so good in that bathroom!!
16. I love how she and my dad would exchange “Lonesome Dove” books and how she means to much to my dad!
17. I love how every time I hear the song “I Hope You Dance” I think about her and smile because she gave me that song and book as a present for Christmas 1999 because the song made her think of me
18. I love how one day we were at her house dancing to Madonna’s “Vogue” in the back yard when that song was so popular
19. I loved loved loved going to the Backstreet Boys concert with her and all the FUN that surrounded that night
20. I love how we made up dances to Backstreet Boys songs that I still remember to this day and drive my husband crazy with.
21. I love the song “Come Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove” and always makes me think of her because of the line “kindle a flame of sacred love” – her last name is Kendall.
22. I love how we used to take breath assure thinking it would actually work
23. I love how we washed each other’s feet – literally – before choir tour in the Summer time
24. I love all the things that we said and did together that I cannot put on here because my kids may read this one day…..
25. I love listening to her sing “Not the Same” by Crystal Lewis with my Discman plugged into tiny hand held speakers in her car because her radio didn’t work in her Rodeo
26. I love how we drove all the way to Birmingham for the Fourth of July in 2000 with a wave runner in tow behind her rodeo that did not have a working radio or air conditioning just to find the wave runner was broken.
27. I love how she has found someone to make her so happy to spend the rest of her life with
28. I love how no matter what I say or how I say it, she gets me 100%
29. I love how we have a special bond that cannot be broken.
30. I love and celebrate what a beautiful person she is, and how much she means to me in my life long ago and in my life now.

LOVE YOU VJ! Can’t want to see you in May!