You're Still The One

Original Air Date: 09.25.04
Opening Song: "Everybody's Smiling, Sunshine Day" - The Brady Bunch

Yesterday was the absolute GREATEST day I've had in months! Adrienne, my best friend who lives in Hershey, Pennsylvania, called me after Marching Band practice. On the phone, we caught up on everything: ex-girlfriends and boyfriends, college choices, new friends, etc. She talked, I listened, she listened, I talked. She's the one person in this world who knows the details of my past and understands why I do the things I do. And whenever one of us falls apart, the other one is there to pick up the pieces. It's the ideal relationship; I just wish she could be around more than once every two years.

You see, the two of us go way back... pretty much as early as I can actually remember. WARNING: I'M ABOUT TO EXPERIENCE A FLASHBACK AND IT JUST MIGHT GET SCARY. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.

We were both five years old when her grandmother (Miss Dorothy) babysat both of us. We spent our afternoons watching Shining Time Station and Barney & Friends and eating bowls of Spaghettios together. Not much has changed there... except when we get together now we watch movies like Moulin Rouge and Superstar and eat BBQ Potato Chips. We boarded the same bus to our first day at High Point Elementary and I still have the photo (in which I'm wearing Steve Urkel shorts and the black bookbag I would lug around for the next six years) to prove it.

She attended my sixth birthday party where we watched Beauty & The Beast. Actually, "The Beast" scared the begeezes out of her so I sat with her on the staircase, wrapped my arm around her shoulder, and we talked. Even back then we were extremely close-- that was temporarily ruined when her parents moved to Baltimore after Kindergarten.

Even while she was gone, I worked on stories and always included her in them. In the third grade I finished creating an 80-page screenplay (and a comic book series) called "The Adventures of the Electricity People." I would play "Computer Boy" and she was listed as "Vacuum Girl." I made posters and everything and brought them to school on the first day of Fourth Grade. When my teacher went through roll and called out "Adrienne Drisgill," it struck a chord and I scanned the room hoping to see that redheaded Dolly Parton fanatic I loved being around. Ironically enough, it was the silent, smiling girl sitting right next to me.

That same day I talked to my guy friends about her and she talked to her girl friends about me and we reunited on the playground. And we learned to love each other again. In the fifth grade we won the Science Fair for our project entitled "DreamWorld," in which we slept over each other's houses and watched comedies, dramas, and horror flicks, noting whether or not we experienced nightmares afterwards. Things went down the tube when she left again after sixth grade. That time she went out-of-state (PA) and we had to keep in touch through letters (which is not something I'm fond of). Plus, nobody liked middle school anyway.

And now I like to "stalk" her other best friend, Erica, to try and find out how she's doing. I'm very happy to hear that she's still interested in writing poetry and loves the work Emily Dickinson and her old favorites Edgar Allan Poe and William Shakespeare. Personally, I'm a fan of Stephen King and Clive Barker.

What did I learn? I learned that we're all very fortunate to have that one person in the world who stays on your mind everyday and even though the two of you don't talk all the time or even live in the same state, she/he's still important to you. Adrienne, I've considered you my #1 best friend since Kindergarten and no matter what happens, you've earned that title and you'll always hold a special place in my heart. I love you in a way that's different from anyone else in my life. We've gone through everything together: I'm talking love, hate, racism, differences in family values, body image issues, sexuality, disease, heartbreak, and separation. Thank you for calling yesterday, A, I'll call you tomorrow.