So I have this amazing friend. At first sight, she comes off as abrasive and sometimes defensive. However, that's just her crusty outside (she's my cute little oreo). Inside, she's this wonderfully delicious cream-filling. She's a dessert that has sweetened my life and the way I look at things. Acting all tough, she'll mock me and joke around with me, but I know that underneath that, she sincerely cares about me. I'm flying to Los Angeles on Wednesday. Instead of saying, "Have a nice flight," she warns me that I had better text her when I get on the plane, when it takes off, and especially when I land. Same thing goes for the trip home as well.
This girl has taught me many a thing in my life in the short 6 months or so we've been friends, and I can genuinely say best of friends. I'm jealous of her passion. There's a drive in her I have never seen in a person before. A drive to overcome. Overcome hardships, laziness, over-spending, and countless other things she hates about herself (if I'm being honest, she is the strongest, hardworking woman I have ever met and she deserves to treat herself, bee tee dubs). She would jump in front of a car for her best friends. Not because that's what friends do. She would do it because she would be broken if she saw any of her friends get hurt if she didn't at least attempt to save them. It's simply astonishing how one person can put another person first in their priorities like she does with no selfishness or personal gain in her mind.
That's my introduction to her. I'm sharing all of this because today was the best holiday I ever had because of her.
My friend picked me up from work today after an especially hard day. It's 4th of July and there was a big coupon going on at my retail store. We've cut down on giving out coupons to everyone, so everyone and their sister was yelling at me for coupons. Ugh. So when she picked me up from work, I was in a huffy-puffy kind of mood. We picked up a Little Caesar's Hot-N-Ready pizza. We hadn't thought through where to eat it. She says to me, "Have I ever shown you my favorite place?"
She takes me to the pedestrian walkway over highway 94. As we started walking across, I said, "Man, this always really scares me." She looked so disappointed as she said, "But this is my favorite place...we can go if you want." (Always putting me first, God bless her.) I told her no way, I wanted to share this with her. She sat down facing the traffic coming toward us. As we open the pizza box she says, "I love waving at the traffic." At first I thought, That's really distracting to cars...what if she started an accident? She waves to the first car and they wave back, a huge smile on their face as they disappear under the bridge below us.
I look at her and she's beaming. I'm smiling, too. We start waving to every car that passes under us. Semi-trucks honk at us; they sounded like the distant horn of a train, something I didn't expect. Passengers waved at us with both hands. Truck drivers blew kisses at us. Peace signs and rock on hand gestures were thrown in sometimes as well. A lot of honking and laughing and connections from many feet away.
I looked at my friend sitting next to me on the concrete. I know why that is her favorite place. It's a place where you can make people smile and laugh. She told me that she loves to think that she just made someone's day just by waving at them and showing she cared, even if just for a few short seconds. She told me she hopes they reach their destination and say, "So, on my way here, I saw two girls waving at me over the highway. They were crazy-cool!" haha. It's a way she can finally reach hundreds of people just in an hour and a half.
This is my friend and this is why she's the most self-less person I know. I love you, Chels. :)
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