Joan Stuff

NBA season started tonight. Which means I've lost my husband until next June. Bummer. He promised me a Jamba Juice if I leave him alone tonight though- and who can pass that up. So I'm blogging.

I've really been missing Joan lately (my friend whose husband got into George Washing Law School *YAY* but then decided to move her across the entire country and leave me stranded all alone and friendless and sad). So I decided to do a little reminiscing about our friendship and good times.

This is Joan (and her hubby Tryon (aka Stephen) but ignore him for the post's sake- if you can, I know he is dashingly handsome.) We met through our husbands- they were companions on their mission. I remember our first double date together was a picnic up at Bridal Veil falls. It was casual and fun. We got along well enough. She seemed nice.

A couple weeks later they asked us if we wanted to go camping for the weekend with them. It was awful! Everything that could suck did (food, sleeping, driving, etc) Later Joan admitted to me she wasn't excited to go camping with us at all. She didn't think we had anything in common and we could only listen to mission talk for so long before we all ran out of things to say. Somehow we survived the trip and weirdly enough we actually hung out again. I honestly don't remember why.

The first time I knew Joan and I would be friends we were in my car driving back from Salt Lake. Jack and I had gone up there to hang out with the Tryons for the morning. We ran out of things to do so we all decided to go to Provo and make dinner together. Jack quickly volunteered the girls to ride in one car and the boys in another. I remember being SO mad at him. How could he force me to drive 30 minutes with a girl I hardly knew. I hate awkward silence and I had nothing of interest to say. Ironically enough we talked the whole way home. I don't even remember what we talked about, but it was like talking with an old friend. At one point she turned to me and said "you are so easy to talk to" not a very significant phrase I know but I knew from then on we would be close.

And we were. It was common knowledge between the 4 of us that we would hang out every weekend. We were not allowed to make other plans. (My family can attest to this... they often heard the phrase "I can't, we're hanging out with the Tryons) It didn't matter what we did or even if we had a plan, but we knew we would do it together. We saw movies together, went on road trips to Vegas and Wendover, went to Lagoon, had parties, sleepovers, played dungeons and dragons, had BBQs, played video games, sometimes we would just sit at home and talk.

I love Joan for so many reasons. One of the big reasons is because she always knew what to say without saying anything. I remember one time in particular I was out of town for the day and she was at my house when I got home. I had been having a really rough day and had cried the whole way home. When I walked through the door she stood up and gave me a hug. I don't think we ever really talked about what had happened that day. We didn't have to. She didn't want to know all the nitty gritty details. She just knew that I needed her. And she was there.

Joan had a way of making me feel like I was on top of the world. I had forgotten how important friends were before I met her. She made me feel like I was more than just a wife. I felt fun again. I felt like I was worth knowing again. She'll never know how much her friendship changed me. I truly feel like I am a better person for knowing her.

I love you Joan. I hope you know. Don't forget you still have to be friends with me for 3 more years. I have your washer.