A photo journal comprised of my thoughts on motherhood and other life happenings, as well as some of professional work as a photographer. Southern California is home.
This is my beautiful best friend. Ten things off the top of my head:
1. We went to high school together but were not friends. Then we roomed together in college and became inseparable.
2. We have babies that are seven days apart.
3. We’ve traveled to Singapore, Indonesia, Guatemala, Mexico, Thailand, India, Malta, Egypt, Morocco, and Belize together. We also drove from California to Louisiana and back. We ate a lot of eggs, which we kept unrefrigerated in the back of the car. We returned early when my nails started mysteriously falling off. Like seriously falling off. It was not related to the the unrefrigerated eggs.
4. We used to go to a hole in the wall Indian restaurant on a regular basis to drink tea. The man that worked there took a liking to us and would have our tea ready once he saw us getting out of the car. We also used to frequent dive bars throughout the valley. One bar offered to “hire” us to hang out there to draw men in. We declined. It was weird.
5. We burned a tire on the beach in Mexico because we were freezing. It made for a big, warm flame but the smell was horrid and I have a feeling it was not good for the environment.
6. Dan Eldon was, at one time, our hero. He’s still pretty up there in my book.
7. There was a period of time I wasn’t dating anyone and Janet I spent so much time together that my dad thought we might be lesbians. He’ll say this was a joke if you ask him about it today, but my mom will confirm that, indeed, he was serious. It’s good to know he loved me all the same.
8. There was a time that we lived together, worked together at a coffee shop, and took the same classes together. And yet the only fight we’ve ever had was on a 24 hour bus ride in India. I couldn’t even tell you what it was about.
9. We went shopping in a huge market in Singapore separately and came out donning the same exact bracelet.
10. And, oh ya, she’s the designer behind this blog. She’s also helping me with something new I have in the works. You can check out a small portion of her work here. She has a blog as well, but despite my persistence, it’s private. I consider myself in the “in” crowd.
I talk about Janet a lot here on my blog. It’s hard not to. She’s my best friend.
Would you believe that we went to the same high school and weren’t even friends? It’s funny how people come back around and weave their way into your life somewhere down the line, at a more appropriate time (as a side note to that, Willy and I met in college and were friends but didn’t go on a first date until years later after we had both graduated).
In any event, I have random memories from my high school days where Janet was present. At our school, you had to apply for a parking spot. They were limited and went to seniors before juniors. If you were late to apply, you were SOL. Janet and I were both in the SOL club. She drove an old Ranchero and I drove an old turbo diesel Mercedes. And we both parked on the street.
I got my first parking ticket there on that street. It was for parking in front of the fire hydrent; something I claimed to not know was illegal when I brought the ticket home to my parents. Those were the day I drove with the sun roof always open and had Tom Petty or The Beastie Boys in my tape deck.
I digress.
I knew little of Janet, but I can still picture walking out to our cars, outside the school gates, after the last school bell rang. She’d drive away in her Ranchero, me in my Mercedes.
Janet came to visit the other day and I met her at her parent’s house. And there, in the driveway, sat the old busted Ranchero. It sat there like a trophy from our past, a reminder when we walked side by side but didn’t know each other.
I had my camera, because I always have my camera, and insisted on photographing her and her little daughter in that Ranchero.
When I look at that photo of her beautiful daughter behind the wheel of that clunker, I’m reminded that life unravels in so many awesome ways.
