It's my BFF's birthday and this is her present

Today is my friend Jody's birthday. Last year was her 30th and I sent her a variety of awesome things from our specialty item closet, which is the most amazing thing on this earth. This year she will get the funniest card I can get my hands on and this blog.

She's one of my oldest friends and one of the first best friends I made in college.

Our friendship started a little bit out of obligation. She was president of the sorority I was thinking about pledging. Actually, it was what we called an "open bid party", where girls were invited to just "hang out with the sisters" and then we tricked them into signing bid cards and took their money in exchange for a t-shirt. So I was tricked into going to one of these parties at her apartment. We watched  the Video Music Awards and ate pizza.

For those who don't know, I was super duper cool and loved NSYNC pretty much more than anything ever. She felt similarly about Justin Timberlake as I did about the entire group. That's how we bonded.

Between undergrad and grad school, Jody taught English in China for eight months. China is twelve or so hours behind the Eastern Time Zone and we'd chat after she woke up and before I headed out for the night (right around nine), when I got in for the night and between her afternoon classes (right around 3 am our time) and when she was burning the midnight oil and I was probably just getting up (noon-ish). Those were good times. And you guys? This was even before Skype and Facebook and texting. We're talking an old school friendship that was still awesome.

A few months later, we started grad school together. She lived in the most precious little house on the planet. The back room was what we called the bat cave because of the dark curtains and the fact that it was, like, practically underground. Good conversations were had, papers were graded, TV shows were watched and McDonalds premium chicken nuggets with hot sauce were washed down with Bud Light. The bat cave was my favorite memory from college.

She loves to give me little nuggets of advice that are pretty much life changing. Because she's older (just barely) and wiser. Here's a sample:

• If you don't have pockets and you put your tampon in your waistline just to get to the bathroom without people seeing, remember you've done so and don't just randomly pull it out while walking, for you might run into a male student or colleague and then you're holding a tampon. It's uncomfortable.
• Dark blue nail polish stains are awful. When you try to take it off, it looks like your hands are attached to a dead body.
• Don't eat Shake & Steak and then go for a run.

We also have legendary conversations on the DAILY on AIM. A couple dooseys:

Jody: I just found 1 forint. 
Jody:  that's Hungarian currency.
Jody: Found it in the floor.
Jody: It is mine!
Jody: It is worth .0775 cents USD.
Manny: Ok, moneybags.
Manny: With your.0775 cents.
Jody: Yeah, I know!


Jody: I am going into a 12-5 meeting.
Jody: How do you like them apples?
Me: Oh I hate those apples!
Me: HATE THEM!
Jody: Sour apples.
Jody:Wormy apples.
Me: Rotten apples!
Jody: Ok i'm going
Me: Just go...don't make me more sad.
Jody: Broken and sodden.

So basically, Jody is awesome and an extremely kind-hearted, caring, freaking hilarious, great friend and I'm so lucky to have her as a BFF, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY JP!