Cheers to Birthdays--Mariana (the bestie)

HAPPY HAPPY birthday to my best friend, Mariana! We are going on 12 years of friendship, but really, it started much younger...at Goldsboro Country Club pool when I was a tomboy (seriously I only played with boys...who's shocked?) and Mariana was shy?! (Or so she claims). I don't remember those days...but I know they existed.

Really it allllll started at good ole Eastern Wayne (yes, there is more than 1 high school in Goldsboro for those that had doubts)

Today, I started to think how it's crazy where we both ended up (to this point at least) and was thinking that we are both in such different places than maybe expected.  But then I got to thinking....we have been in different places pretty much our entire friendship but still managed to remain the best of friends.  In high school Mariana was a cheerleader and soccer player--I played volleyball and softball (cheerleading was never my thing).

In college, I studied and went to class....Mariana "overslept" and let me use her Webassign submissions so we both got a 100.  We both studied abroad...but never at the same time, and never to the same place.  For a while, I was loving living in Chapel Hill and she was living in up in NYC.  And now....I'm married and she's back in school.  If you had asked us in high school where we would be in TWELVE years...I'm sure we would have said something totally different.

So here's where it began...Freshman year...in homeroom...looked a little like this!

Hello braces (on me) and banana colored cheerleading uniform! WOW

By fate...and some really good paper writing (wink wink), we both ended up at NCSU 4 years later. We didn't want to be the best friends that roomed together in college and ended up hating each other, so we were suite mates. BIG mistake.  After one semester, we moved in together and kicked our crazy old roommates out!  We ended up in the same sorority and that was only the beginning of all the college fun!


Get ready for a blast from the past ladies....

and the best...ever...

When Justin and I got engaged, I had promised Mariana years before (when I was single) that she would be the first call I would make (minus my parents/bro).  So, I kept my word...and she didn't answer!

She did call back...from Macy's...with her mom....crying (lots of crying--I'm sure the sales associate thought something bad had happened).  Then when I called to ask her to be my maid-of-honor, she was on the streets of NYC....crying! But I love that she cries....about pretty much everything. 

I think one of my favorite "mariana moments" was when she surprised me at our Raleigh engagement party. She was living in New York and I just assumed she couldn't make it...understandable. And she told me she couldn't make it....liar! SURPRISE!

Our wedding day was perfect and she made sure of that!...so fun!!

So happy birthday to my little Mariana....who I can't see in my peripheral vision when I'm wearing heels, who I can count on to keep my secrets, who I would do her chemistry homework for all over again, who I know will be my best friend no matter where in the world we both end up 12 years from now! Much love my sweet friend!