Built In Best Friends

"You better be nice to each other! God sent you down together so you'd have a built-in best friend!" - Infamous quote from my mother

Today I've been thinking about my built-in best friends. The fabric of each of my sister's personalities is so unique and colorful. For a bunch of gals that look a lot alike, we are quite different from each other. Kolette is an exquisite ballet dancer. She danced with Ballet West and toured around South Africa, performing for large audiences there. I, on the other hand, only pretended to be quite so exquisite. I was a buffoon twice in the Nutcracker and a candy cane once. If you feel confused that you don't recall ever seeing a 'Candy Cane' in any rendition of The Nutcracker, don't be. I think they exceeded their quota of dancers that particular year and consequently just made up this candy cane character to make use of us. Whoever had the brilliant idea of throwing a bunch of flat-chested, insecure sixth graders into striped, full-body spandex outfits needs to be shot. I'm not even sure if they choreographed a routine for us either. All I can remember is them throwing us a bunch of hula-hoops that were decorated like candy canes and pushing us out on stage. Now that I think about it, I'm wondering if I was in some sort of "special" dance number during the intermission. Hmmm.... At any rate, I'm going to petition to receive Kolette's dancing ability after the resurrection.

Kami gets the award for child prodigy pianist. She is an incredible piano player and forever holds the not-so-proud title in our household of "Vacuum Nazi". She was a teenager at the time and I was merely eight-years-old. I liked her except on the days that we did chores together. She would make me vacuum over and over again until I turned that beige living room into a perfectly mowed backyard. She is now the proud mama of six kids and uses her Vacuum Nazi tendencies to her housekeeping advantage. She's full of wisdom and optimism and I love her for it.

Kearstin is a firecracker of a person. She's fun, loving, and even more fun. I don't know if she has ever gone a day in her life without laughing. She's passionate and strong-willed and I sometimes wish that I felt things as deeply as she does. She has always reminded me of Julia Roberts for some reason. She's beautiful, with a big smile, and a contagiously infectious laugh. You can't help but want to be around her.

Lindsay...Lizard as we call her at home is my saving grace. She is the closest friend I will ever have. My mother's famous 'built-in best friend' speech was most frequently shouted at the two of us during our early adolescence. Lizard and I went through about a one year period during junior high where we kind of despised each other, but we emerged from that period as best friends. I despised her because she was beautiful and cool. She despised me because I was obnoxious and I wore head gear at night. Everyone hates people that wear head gear at night.

Lizard and I shared a queen-size bed during that year of adolescent rivalry. One night while I was sound asleep, Lindsay awoke to the sudden sensation of warm liquid on the sheets. She looked down and realized that she had peed the bed. She gasped and put her hand over her mouth in disgust. In a moment of panic, she looked over at her bad-breathed, brace-faced sister and rolled me in the puddled urine. She quickly washed, changed her clothes, and went back to sleep on the clean edge of the bed. In the morning I woke up to the smell of urine. Lindsay woke up suspiciously quickly and yelled, "Oh my gosh, Ashley! Did you pee the bed?!"

I never knew that she was really the one that peed the bed until we were in college. By that time we were best buds and the story just made us laugh. It still makes me laugh! I love Lizard more than my luggage and I can't imagine my life without her. She has listened and laughed with me through all of life's urine puddles and I'm so grateful to have such an incredible built-in best friend.

Now go call your sisters and tell them you love em.

Even if they did torture you as a child.