Hello World,
This is Katie. I’m sure you’ve seen me mentioned in Chrissy’s blog before. Chrissy clearly has both writer’s block AND poor judgment, because she’s offered to let me write a guest post.

This is an unprecedented opportunity. In fact, I’ve been mulling over what I would say in my Maid of Honor speech at Chrissy’s wedding for years now. It doesn’t matter to me that I may not be “Maid of Honor” or “in the wedding,” but I’ve decided I’m giving a speech at her eventual wedding. No. Matter. What. I guess this is as good a time as any for a rough draft.

I first met Chrissy at freshman orientation at Bradley University. Since I didn’t know anyone, I accepted the invitation of a peppy student aide to accompany a group of fellow orientees to Steak and Shake. This is where I first laid eyes on the girl who would become one of the most important people in my life. My first impression? PINK. She was wearing a pink halter top, pink sneakers, and a pink scrunchie (in fairness, scrunchies were only about 4 years out of fashion at the time). She was also drinking a child sized pink milkshake. I was still in my grunge phase, sporting enormously baggy pants and black t-shirts. By the end of the evening I knew one thing for sure. This girl was going to make sure I had fun, in spite of myself.

In life you make a lot of friends. You make friends of convenience, acquaintances, surface friends. The best way I can describe my friendship with Chrissy, is that it’s like a marriage. Lesser friendships would not have survived the chaos of college and boyfriends and minor bouts of charming mental illness. There are friendships that, like relationships, implode at the first sign of trouble. That can’t handle a real fight. The ones you never cared enough about to fight for. Chrissy has always been worth fighting for. I liken our cosmic bond to something beyond a typical friendship. I’m fond of telling Chrissy she was my butter churning best friend in a past life, and as such, she’ll never be rid of me.

We’ve taken a sappy turn here, so I may as well go for the gusto. Our sophomore year of college, I was going through a rough patch. I was sitting in my dorm room crying because one of the boys I had a crush on wasn’t interested in me. It was then that Chrissy did what Chrissy does best. She put her arm around me and said “Katie, my love for you goes through walls” (at a loss for further description she glanced at the dorm room wall) “Thick ones. Cinderblocks.” I started laughing. And to quote one of our favorite movies, Steel Magnolias, “Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion.”

(This is a wedding speech, I hope you hadn’t forgotten that!) This is where I’ll raise my glass and offer a toast to the newlyweds: “May your love go through cinderblock walls, and may laughter always shine through your tears. Congratulations. And Groom… Good luck!”