A Friend Indeed

I've been waiting on the right time to focus on another character in my life... And tonight seemed about as right as it would get. So I'm gonna tell you a bit about my very best friend, Jenny. Well, Jennifer to anyone unlucky enough not to know her. She's a New York yankee, Catholic and a Democrat. I know, right? It gave me the heeby jeebies just typing it out like that. She opposes the death penalty and is a staunch vegetarian - at heart. What I mean is, she'll cry over the poor sacrificial chicken as she munches on her crispy recipe bucket from KFC. She feels really bad about how much she enjoys eating meat.


Jenny is wicked smart and is an excellent student. She's at the top of her class with a 4.0 and is in her junior year at STC. She's in school to become a Radiologic Technologist. She can tell you anything and everything you never wanted to know about bones and how to preposition them - under, beside, beyond, by, above, below, etc... I don't know what she's talking about half the time these days, but I try to listen as though I can actually follow along.

Being her bffl as well, I'm privy to some little known information about Jennifer Eileen Nelson Conner. Such as: at one time or another it's safe to say that she has lost everything she has ever had in her hands; purse, keys, wallet, license, pen, lighter, paper, earring, frying pan, oven mit, remote, cat, kid... If she's touched it, she's lost it as well. I walked into a gas station one afternoon and the kind clerk remembered seeing Jenny and I in the store together several times and so she asked if I would return her wallet to her. She handed me Jennifer's pink, leather wallet, as she had left it on the counter after paying for her items and leaving the store the day before. Another little tidbit about my dear friend is that she would rather sink into a hole and be eaten by the floor than to suffer the awkwardness & discomfort of attending a class, function, party or gathering where there will be people she doesn't know. She's not socially awkward. She can talk to anyone and find some common interest. Jenny would just rather not... talk to you or find common interests if she doesn't have to. She's easily mortified and it's extremely lucky for her that she has a terrible long term memory, short term as well. I guess it's safe to say that she doesn't remember a whole lot. Which in many cases, has served her well. When Jenny is wounded, offended or upset... She'll forgive you quickly, but she'll forget all about it even sooner. I can't count the times I've managed to get her good and pissed off by reminding her of what someone said or did to her that she'd forgotten all about. And as quickly as she's reminded, she forgets again. In her studies though, she is diligent and commits to memory, all that is required of her. When she makes up her mind to do something, she more than follows through. She smashes through!!  

We are sister cynics and enjoy deliberate conversations in which we purge from our souls, all of the things we could never say to anyone else. Like me, she was missing the "mom gene". But oddly enough she has four children and is very nurturing, although she often admits she has no idea what to do with her kids. She spends a lot of time in 'the parenthood' wondering how in the hell she got there. We blab and gab about everything. We are very different people. We have extremely different interests, taste in clothing, books, movies, sometimes music, hobbies, politics, religion... But we always find a way to agree, even when we don't. Jenny and I have a most unique dynamic. We are almost always on the same wave length, and when we're not we know it, and will adjust our radars and lives. We'll wiggle and squirm privately until we are back on track with one another. When one of us has moved into a new phase, or attacked a new interest, or even charted a new path, we pull the other along until they've caught up. We don't have to be doing the same thing, we just have to be moving in the same direction. We never seem to grow apart, if only because we refuse to. It is always unspoken of course... We wouldn't dare demand that sort of ridiculous allegiance to one another out loud.


My Jenny is a complex, beautiful, quirky woman-child who always, always moves forward. I've never known her to be set back, although she's had many setbacks. In all the years I've been lucky enough to call her my friend, she has been the most blazingly honest person, honest to others and always to herself, that I have ever known. She'll tell the truth because she's horrible at lying. And she'll be honest with herself because she's not afraid to grow and be better. Always refreshing, moving, growing, strong and forward. She is her name, Jennifer: A White Wave