And Then I Met Sally

*I really want something sweet right now, but I'm not sure what. So I'm delaying the inevitable.*

Before I came to OWU, I heard stories about a girl named Sally. She was from Ohio, she took a politics class, and she didn't have a roommate. When I came to OWU, I didn't live with her that year but we had Geology 110 together at 8 AM on Tuesday Thursday. Together, we suffered through long, boring lectures in the dark and endured the sweltering heat of an especially warm spring with the heat turned on! The next year, Sally and I were suite mates along with two other girls. That year, sophomore year, was pivotal to me as well as my relationship with Sally. She and I became close, once I started therapy and began to "recover" from my first ever relationship and break-up. She took me home for Easter, to decorate Bunny Cakes, learn how to knit, and introduce me to the crazy that is Toledo. I've never looked back. She's always been the one I can tell anything to, despite the many hesitations I might feel before I finally spill it out. I always worry most what her reaction will be, and it's only gotten me in trouble once.

We only lived together one year. I went off to be a Feminist and she lived in a Palace. That's part of why we work, I think. We have always been able to be each other's wailing wall but never the cause of the wailing. At least while we were at school. We'd have weekly dinners, grocery store trips, and a lot of crazy theme parties. She was my Republican Ally, my Oscar Night Date, my SLU wanna-be, my SCG. Senior year, we used to email each other during the day with random crush citings, random tidbits, dinner plans, bar plans, things professors said to us, etc. just to keep each other updated on the minute details of our busy lives. We had different majors, different schedules but that didn't stop us from knowing everything the other did. Or didn't do, in a lot of cases.

Most of my best stories involve Sally. Like when I fell down the stairs at the Winter Palace. I wasn't concerned about my fall, I was wondering if anyone saw her making out with a boy who's name begins with E as they rushed past her room to the stairwell. Or the boy who told me I was "So loud" as I laughed while walking past him. Or the night we dressed up as Rock stars and ended up posing before the Bush/Cheney sign in my window. The weekend we spent on her Bay. Or the countless cookies we made over Thanksgiving.

I may never understand what caused me to leave Ohio after graduation. I had no reason to be home, except for the fact that I could go home. I always say that my friends in Ohio are my soul-mates, and Sally certainly fits in right at the top. Even after college, we still managed to keep the bonds intact. But then my life became stagnate and I struggled to keep my former life part of my present "Party it up" lifestyle. Things were hard, and I didn't know how to fix our relationship. It wasn't until this fall that I felt the return of the SCG/JAO lifestyle. Our conversations are lively, and packed with information, concerns, exchange. Anticipations of visits, places new to us. It's refreshing. It's how it should be. If my friends truly are my soul mates, then the honeymoon is over and the rest of our lives are ahead of us.

How's that for cheese.