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I feel extremely encouraged tonight. I talked to Stephanie on the phone and she really helped me vent some things that I haven’t been able to with anyone else. Steph is one of the few who can get things out of me without even a single effort made on her behalf. When I talk to her, novels seem to pour out of my mouth. I just can’t stop talking. What’s equally great is her amazing power to speak at just the right time when she knows she has a piece of advice to share that relates directly to what I rant about.

Fifth grade:

Stephanie and I had to make-up a spelling test for Mr. D’s class. We had to stay in from recess. The two of us sat on the opposite ends of a row of desks pressed tightly together. Mr. D sat at the front of the room on his swivel stool and busily wrote notes on his overhead.

About two minutes after beginning our quizzes, Steph and I both looked up from our papers and glanced in each other’s direction. After making eye contact, we both chuckled softly and returned our gazes back to our work.

After completing two or three more “Fill in the blanks with the appropriate plural nouns,” Steph and I turned our heads toward each other again. She laughed, shook her head and pressed her face back into her paper. I smiled and returned my pencil to the task at hand.

“Mr. D has really funny looking ________.” I scribbled the word calves and then quickly looked back at Steph for a third time. Steph looked back at me at the exact same moment. Suddenly, we could take it no longer. Our laughter escaped us. We fought back waves of girlish squeels as we did our best to finish our quizzes. By that time, Mr. D had noticed our silly antics, but found them quite entertaining and allowed us to continue acting stupid.

We locked arms as we left for the last half of recess. We looked at each other again and our faces turned red. We laughed until our sides hurt all the way down to the swing-sets.

Why were we laughing so hard? No reason. None at all. That’s just how it is with Stephanie and me. We laugh at nothing. We laugh at nothing therefore causing any thing and any time to become something to laugh about.

How unfortunate it was when we weren’t friends from the middle of sixth grade through our sophomore year of high school. Every time we passed each other in the halls, we would smile and nod at each other. Sometimes, we would occasionally say “hi” and ask “how are you?” Of course, the only things said back were “hey’s” and “I’m good’s.”

Thanks be to God for when He brought us back together our junior year. If we she and I weren’t best friends, the world would be off its axis or something equally catastrophic would occur to the planet–it simply wouldn’t be right.

“Of course!”