Ode to Becca

Freed from work a little early today I stopped into my friend Becca's house. I took a chance that I would catch her at home. She's the happy mom of a delightully cheerful boy who was sadly napping during my visit. She was assembling a storage cart for her and the Durfmeister's golf clubs. It looked deceptively simple - a few pieces and just a couple screws so of course it took over an hour to do.

It's so good to see the people with whom you can just be. We met our first week of college. She and some girl had the dorm room next to Psycho-Lara and me. Becca remembers our first encounter - it was a sunny day and I breezed by her door while she was sitting on the bed and popped my head in and said "I can see your underwear." I, of course, do not remember this, but will take her word for it. Becca's roommate lasted a grand total of four days before bugging out and going home. She left her books for Becca to sell at the end of the term - not the brightest of ideas. For the record, she did get SOME of her money back.

The next year due to unfortunate grades and my unwillingness to move out with Psycho-Lara (to be honest I wasn't asked) Becca and I ended up sharing the double room for a year. We were perfectly suited and yet drove each other nuts. I was a bumpkinland refugee and she was the sophisticated city girl. We got into trouble together, talked about boys, school and made fun of Psycho-Lara and the rest of the dorm gang. We realized that we too lived in the dorms, but we really did feel superior. Go figure.

We also had a language:

Hey Ski Pants! = Hey, Ski Fans.... (an intro to a Warren Miller film)
Kamiaken = Welcome (A misunderstanding while driving that seems to work for us. It went like this - Becca "What's hawaiian for welcome?" Tpgal [pointing to the street we were looking for] "Kamiaken" Becca [with a sweeping Vanna White move] "Kamiaken!"
"I can't give you half of the $5 bill and expect you to understand it as change! You will have to wait until I can go to the post office and buy a 22 cent stamp." - a late late night conversation that was recorded for no sane reason.
"How do you accidentally sleep with Todd's girlfriend?" - poor Dave...
"I'll give you 5 American dollars to make out with my friend." - I owe her an apology for this one but that was also the same night I slept in a bathtub. At the time it didn't seem like a terrible offer -and it was American not Canadian dollars so it was worth more.

She has the ability to make me laugh the ugly American Tourist laugh. Think of the loudest, blow milk out your nose kind of laughter. It's good to have friends like that.

We're the kind of friends that we don't have to talk to understand each other. We hadn't talked in a while due to schedules and other priorities and when she called me at 8am on a Sunday and couldn't even say hello I knew in my heart that something bad had happened. Her dad had been in an accident and thankfully is still with us - but even just thinking about that 3 seconds of silence brings tears to my eyes. She, like me, has that special father daughter bond that you never want to let go of, or admit that won't last forever. Our relationships with our mothers are also similar - we had a hard time as teenagers finding the balance between wanting to be and actually being adults. Our moms took the brunt of that stuggle. Sorry Mom, it doesn't mean we don't love you...

My point is that it is good to have friends that you can pop over and visit unannounced. Spending an hour with her today made my day!

Having a friend like Becca is "like living in a tree!" (translation: living in a dream)