Blessings, good memories, and things that have touched me.

Alinna
So many good memories. Being ladies who lunch. There was this one day when I was walking home from class, and she called my cell. I think it was one of those super-emotional, "swarm of locusts" days because I randomly started crying. She showed up at my apartment 2 hours later in her pajamas with fun movies, boboli and pizza fixings, and ice cream. She sat with me, listened to my cry, made me laugh. We prayed together. She invites me to be real, to be honest, to let all my neuroticisms out. She encourages me to be honest before God. It was so wonderful just to be together.

Karen
The queen of faithfulness and steadiness. It was Karen that God used to really convict me that I needed to forgive my ex-boyfriend. She was in the same small group as he was during his first semester at Cal. While a lot of my friends felt the need to protect me and stand up for me, Karen invited him in to the fellowship that God had blessed us in within our circle of friends. (Bad sentence, but whatever.) And week after week, she refused to take sides. But, she insisted upon loving him as Christ loved him. I can't even articulate how life changing it was to watch her invite him into a new community. And, she laughs….at EVERYTHING. She teaches me to laugh, to enjoy life, to roll with the punches.

Olivia
Truth and grace. That's what she speaks into my life. She calls things as they are. She's straight up with me. She's honest about her own weaknesses and sinfulness. Our conversations have become few and far between. Yet, there is a caring that extends far more than time or place. This is the girl with whom I can weep, and know that she will be weeping too. Whether she’s in Baltimore or Saratoga, she’ll only be a call away. We talked last Friday and praised God for free long distance on cell phone plans.

Mary
My partner in crime. MCB 130 Lab. The class of madness. Total chaos and lots of laughing. When I think of all the memories from a wonderful senior year at Cal, I can think of no one but Mary. She’s an amazing listener. She would Popsicles to boring Sex Class (IB 140) lectures; she did crossword puzzles with me. Mary’s just one of those people that’s kinda a constant in my life. It’s comforting to see her.

I’m so grateful for the girls, I can’t even begin to express it. Alinna likes to say that we all had “an extended lease on our friendships.” Not only did we have each other in high school, but we got to be together at school, and then we all stuck together in the Bay Area after that. Now, Mary’s off to Yale, O’s at Hopkins, Al’s done with Stanford, Jean’s going to Missouri for PT school (gosh, I have nerdy friends). God’s shipping us off to all different places. Friends for life, these girls. We’re kinda like the Ya-Ya’s (read: very girly book and movie). I’m so thankful that God put me in such an amazing community of friends.

People used to call us “the Eight” or just “the Saratoga girls.” When we were in high school, we dreamt of living and working together. We had some name for our project, which Olivia later renamed the Tower of Babel. We were going to run an safehouse for kids. Alinna would teach, Shirley would check their eyes, Ina would be the dentist, Karen would manage us all, O would provide basic health care, I would do health education stuff, Jean would help with PT stuff. We’re ridiculous..that’s why it became known as the Tower of Babel.

What else did we have…oh “The Gauntlet.” The Gauntlet was this series of “approvals” that guys would have to pass in order to date one of us. There was an order of who was the most lenient and who was the most rigid. Everyone would observe guy differently. Jean would just sit in the corner, pretend to do something else and observe. Al would sometimes be outwardly unfriendly just to see how he’d react. O and Karen would approach them and be friendly. But, these outward signs don’t necessarily reflect the order. I don’t remember the specific order, but there were kinda clumps. Easiest: Ina and Shirley. Moderate: Jenie, Me, Karen. Hardest: O, Jean, and Alinna. If Alinna approved, it was a go. Most of the time, it’d come down to “Ok, the opinions of the girls are important, but it’s not a make it or break it point.” You get one of us, you get us all. Ahh..the silliness.

But..we still have great plans for the future for all of us:
People will be wearing coconuts and grass skirts at O’s wedding. It’s O’s punishment for Karen. Mary will have to wear gardenias everywhere at Alinna’s wedding (because Mary keeps bagging on Gardenias which Al loves). Karen is going to plan all our weddings for us (hello, gift of administration). O and Seri will sing “Wind Beneath My Wings” at all the weddings. From this group of women will come godmothers and aunties to my kids.

O tried to present a new "tower of Babel" to me on Friday. She says we're all going to go to Africa together. We're going to run a program that will provide health education for existing physicians in Africa. O and Mary will run the health education part, I will run the orphanage, Karen will get to focus on doing ministry, Alinna will teach the kids in the orphanage. I laughed. But, oh what a dream that would be. To go be missionaries and relief workers together.

*sigh* our pipe dreams. They make me smile. Most of these things will probably never happen. But, it’s still fun to dream.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed babbling about this. It’s comforting. It’s also really incoherent. Oh well, it was more for me than it was for you. Sorry.