My BFF

Me and Shiyrah celebrating my 24th birthday in 2010

I have the best best friend in the whole wide world (wuh-uhld). Seriously. Now I know what you're thinking, "I don't know Karen, my best friend is pretty awesome..." Nope. I win. You're welcome.

Shiyrah and I just celebrated our 11th frienniversary on March 13th. Frienniversary you say? I did say! Frienniversary is the best dang portmanteau I've come up with! Btw, I need to copyright that word! How do I do that? Copyright a word? "HEY EVERYBODY! I'M COPYRIGHTING THIS WORD! I COINED IT! MADE IT UP!" Good enough? Eh. Sure. Anyway, I digress. The word I made up is simple enough to understand (I should hope) but in case any of you need a little help, frienniversary = friendship anniversary. YAY!

Those of you who know me well enough know that last year on our 10th frienniversary we exchanged rings. Cheesy, sure. Again, I like cheese. Seriously though, it's a big deal. Not many girls can say that they've been best friends with the same girl since they were 14. (Granted some are lucky enough to have the same best friend for even longer.)

Shiyrah and I are so close though, I don't know if the term "best friend" is enough to describe it. We've been through hell together and helped each other out when we were stuck in our own personal hells at different times. We've been through breakups, ex fiances, new adventures, truck loads of tears, countless bellyaches from laughter, her wedding, my travels, the joy of getting new dogs, the frustration of family issues, and the list goes on and on. And there have been a couple times when we almost stopped being friends. Thank God we had the good sense to hold onto each other.

Those of you who know me well enough also know that for the past couple years Shiyrah and I have had a standing date each week. We call it girls' night, but really it's usually just best friend night since most of the time it's just us two. Tonight was one of the best girls' nights. We ate dinner at her place then went to see the movie Tangled (which by the way is one of my new faaavorite movies!!! I MUST OWN IT WHEN IT COMES OUT ON DVD! AGH! ADORABLE!! Again, I digress). As much as we adored the movie though, the best part of the evening was the end.

As we often do, Shiyrah and I sat out on her front porch swing talking the hours away. Seriously, I left her place at midnight:30. That's super late for us, she wakes up early. I've always loved my talks with Shiyrah. Some of my best memories of us are our late night talks; staying the night at her house in high school, talking till we were delirious and she would start answering me in her head and not out loud, or when we lived together in college and I would hop into her super comfy bed and she would tell me to quiet my mind as I tried to sort out my jumbled up thoughts, oh yeah! and the time I had to keep talking to her to keep her awake while she drove us back to her house really late one night in high school! :) OH! OH! And when she moved into my dorm room (Merlini for life!) and we had light saber fights with our cell phones!!!

Tonight we talked about a lot. We talked about how we met at the Cheney Baptist Church youth group when we were young and naive, how we were inseparable and so alike. Back then it seemed like we were one person in two bodies, on the same path in so many ways. And through the years we've both grown and changed so much. In some ways, we're still that one person in two bodies (mostly when it comes to the combustion of our goofy, silly, off the wall energy) but we are so different in many other ways. Shiyrah is more grounded, I'm a floating free spirit. She's settled down and ready to start a family, it'll be amazing if I'm married by the time I'm 30. She's conservative, I'm liberal, etc etc etc. Although our paths are no longer one, they will always intermingle.

I'm so lucky to have Shiyrah. She is my friend for life. I know that no matter what happens, we will always be there for each other. I used to think "Man, I've got to get out of Wichita some day," but honestly, settling down here wouldn't be bad at all. Life can't be bad when I've got such an amazingly kind and generous person to hang around. And if I never end up getting married or having kids, I'll just build my house next to hers and be her nanny and help her raise her kids. :)

I'll end this post by saying that I hope those of you reading this are lucky enough to have a friendship that you hold so dear that you would do anything to keep it going, that you have someone who you know will be there for you no matter what, someone to share your secrets, your pain and your joy with. Make sure that you let that person know how valuable they are to you.

I'd like to say thank you to all of my friends. I am extremely thankful for the many wonderful people who have blessed me with their friendship, trust and love. You are shining lights in a world full of darkness and you fill my life with happiness. My sister Loralie, you are so much more to me than a sister, I love you more than I can say. My dad Marvin, I have so much respect and love for you. You were so strong when so many others would have fallen apart. My godmother Sally, all I can say without crying is thank you for raising me, you'll always be my 2nd mommy.

Kenzie, Desi, Candis, Geoff, Katie Anne, Brianna (my honey bee), Amanda, Liz Tiede, Rachel, Phil, Ellie, Niomi, Greg, Abby, Hannah, Sonja, Lynda, Holly, Teresa, Allie, Shane, Amy, Beth, Jake Seymore, Jon Staab, Maggie, Lynnsee, Maryann, Mike Massions, Nelson, Prakriti, Sarah, Stacy, Janet, all my family in Australia, my Canadian friend Daniella... the list goes on and on...

Even if we aren't the closest of friends at this moment, you have made an impact on my life, especially if I listed you specifically but even if I didn't. Thank you for being you and for being a part of my life, whether it's just for a chapter or two or the whole story. Love with all your heart and embrace those who are in it. I love you.