My Best Friend

My best friend – Gabrielle Micale – has been one of the most influential people in my life and I have not given her the credit she deserves.

I moved to Georgia in 8th grade and Gabrielle was one of the first people who introduced themselves to me in gym class. She was very friendly and LOUD – not shy in the least bit unlike little mousy me. I was use to hiding in the shadows thanks to my bottle cap glasses (which my husband named my Hootie Owl glasses) but by this point I got contacts but the shyness didn’t disappear overnight. The next day she was the only person I could remember their name since I associated it with Gabrielle off Xena the Warrior Princess (gosh it has been a long time since I’ve seen that show) so thus our friendship began. She introduced me into her group “the Fab Five” and we all became friends. That was until the dreaded LETTER…you see we had a project we did together and she failed to do her part on time and it irritated me so much I wrote her the infamous LETTER basically calling her out. We eventually got over it but it was miserable during that off time cause all my friends were her friends first.

We made it to high school and made lots of great memories including late night trips to McDonalds for French fries and ice cream, Yummy Yummy chicken, and had even bought $0.23 worth of gas. There were lots of sleepovers, crazy birthday parties and of course we can’t forget about the kitchen sink.

After High School life pulled us into different directions. I stayed home and got a job and went to school at night and she went an hour away to school, which at the time seemed so far away. I ended up getting married and although I had my sister be my Maid of Honor, she was great, helping me the whole way. Although I don’t remember her exact speech at the reception I remember it was AWESOME.

I remember when she came into town to tell me about her relationship that she couldn’t tell me over the phone. I think she was a little shocked when I didn’t have anything negative to say when she said “HER name is…” I don’t know what she really expected me to do – she was my best friend – there was no way I was giving her up because she had a different choice in partner than I did. My husband at the time had a lot to say and we would fight ALL THE TIME about her choice. I flat out told him once that if he made me choose between him and my friendship that he would be the one to go. This is the time where my backbone began to grow. I made the choice to stand up to him when he DEMANDED that she never come into HIS house because she was going to turn me gay – of all the ignorant things a person could say…REALLY??? (There is a reason I’m not married to him anymore).

Gabrielle has been there through all the good and bad times in my life. She was even there for both of my weddings and the birth of my daughter. She has always looked out for me, sheltering me from certain things so I wouldn’t be uncomfortable or scared. She has taught me how to speak my mind and how to break out of my little turtle shell I liked to hide in (cause if you hang around her enough that loudness rubs off on you). Anytime I need advice, she is the one I call. She is the kind of friend that people long to have and if you don’t know her – you really should because she is truly one of a kind.

So what can I do to make sure she knows I appreciate her – I dedicate a blog post to her!