April W

I am obviously on a "grateful for people" kick these days.  But that's just because there are some seriously awesome people in my life.

Like my friend April. 

April and I began our rockin' friendship in the hallway at library school on a Saturday afternoon while someone was giving a report in our class.  What were we doing in the hallway instead of in class?

Well, April had left to get a drink of water before the guy started presenting and didn't make it back in time to go back in without interrupting.  I purposefully left the classroom to avoid the presentation.  Because when I know someone is going to drone on way past their allotted time, I tend to feel awkward for that person.  I start to feel antsy and embarrassed.  I don't know why, I just do.  So, to spare myself those awkward feelings, I left -- knowing I wouldn't be able to go back in until the presentation was over.

And a beautiful friendship was born.  A friendship that makes me smile and ever so grateful to have placed myself in that hallway that day.

April is very generous.  She lived in Birmingham, and let me park my car at her apartment and then would drive me to the airport at hideous hours of the morning so I wouldn't have to pay to park my car when I would fly out to Washington for vacation.  And then she'd pick me up at night.  And now, if I ever fly into Birmingham from Washington, she picks me up.  And one time, when I flew down for her wedding, she even arranged for her mom to take me to the airport, since she and her hubby went on their honeymoon, and I was still in town for a couple days.

On both occasions when I've gone down to Alabama since meeting my husband (once when we were dating and once since being married and having a baby), April has fed us lots of yummy food!  The first time was as an awesome breakfast.  The second time was fun dinner (mostly finger-type foods).

April is an awesome librarian.  True, I don't work for her and never have.  But she just rocks.  She has great ideas, and I feel like the community who has her as their library director is seriously the luckiest ever.

After several years of our friendship, I learned that that summer April and I had that weekend class together, April had been spending the night in her car on the weekends we had class (we had class Friday night and Saturday all day once a month).  I felt so bad that I didn't know that -- and that we hadn't become friends sooner.  I had a huge apartment all to myself and would have been more than happy to give her a place to stay!  If only...

I love that April and I have so many awesome memories.  Like getting mooned by a fabulous ferrous fanny (we went and saw the Vulcan statue in Birmingham).  Like dressing up like The Office characters and making food based on that show (like putting a Dwight pen in jell-o and having a kitty litter cake in celebration of Angela's unnatural cat obsession and having fake bacon (April's a vegetarian) because Michael Scott grilled his foot on a George Foremann Grill... hahaha).  Like getting our hair done for her wedding -- and decorating the reception area in a library-theme.  Like me getting beat by her and her daughter at Trivial Pursuit 80s edition (the shame!).  Like discussing angry lawyer dude and his dislike of one our teachers...  The teacher who gave me a book as a grade (she drew it) on an exam (for some reason I can never remember what April got), but at least I didn't get a clock!  Like chatting (hopefully) privately via a (supposedly and hopefully) private chat built into one of our online classes.  Like talking on the phone for at least 2 hours when we have one of our marathon catch-up conversations.

I love that April is always so thoughtful.  She finds some of the most awesome stuff and sends it to me as gifts for birthdays and Christmas.  Where she finds some of the awesomely 80s stuff she finds, I'll never know.  But I'm glad she understands and shares my love of all things 80s.  She's the one who sent me those awesome throwback 80s cereals for my birthday back in October.  (For the record, due to efforts to make them more 'healthy,' those cereals would no longer be good without the sweetness added by the marshmallows...  But if I have to say which one was best, it would be Fruity Yummy Mummy -- which tastes like orange creamsicle.)  Her packages seriously make my day.

And I love that, despite the miles, we still have plans.  Plans for our Scrubs party that WILL happen one of these days.  Plans that we always see each other if I'm in Bama.  Plans to be friends... forever.

Yep, April is awesome.  And just sitting her reminiscing about all these things has brought numerous smiles to my face.  And that rocks the Nilla Life too.

What are you grateful for today?