My favorite person

I know what you're thinking. Months and months with hardly a post and now two in two days? What happened?

No, I didn't buy a computer. The sad reality is that as long as my foot continues to hurt it will always be first priority if I have any extra cash. Which I don't. Because I'm spending it all on basketball tickets. But enough about that.

I'm writing a lot more because I do suddenly have a computer in my possession. Because somebody really really loves me.

That someone is Erin Althoff. My best friend. The only friend I have who knew me fresh out of high school in love with my boss at the movie theater and hiding behind waist-length hair. Before depression in Chicago. Before giddy almost-love in Eugene. Before I started cutting my own hair. Before Blazers. Before I even let myself be me. She new me back then and me now and me every step of the way between, and we have only grown closer as we have grown up. 

Now she lives in Portland, and every time I go up there I tense up and get giddy and I probably cross my eyes as I have been known to do when extra excited, because I get to see Erin.

Someone from Iowa. Someone from home. Someone who understands all the weird little quirks that make me me and loves every one of them.

The last time I saw her was for my birthday, and I was almost more excited to see her than I was for my 100 level basketball seats. My birthday was the day after the game anyway, so really that was more of a pre-birthday present. The real birthday present was spending the day with Erin. I would sleep in while she worked a little in the morning, and then after that we would roam the city together in the afternoon sun and enjoy each other's company. Sounds exciting, right?! A chance to completely relax and be myself without wondering where I stood or having to explain anything. To talk about crafting and Gilmore Girls and Blazers and Iowa and this crazy Pacific Northwest and how much we love it.

And it pretty much went just like that. And it was probably the most contented birthday I've ever had. I was happy no matter what happened. We had a few minor hiccups due to running late and a faulty DVD player, and though I have been known to get upset when things don't exactly work out, I never let any of it get in the way. 

And then, to top off my happy weekend, Erin turned to me while I was in the middle of lamenting how much I miss blogging and checking my email and wishing that I could look online for summer jobs without it costing ten cents a minute and said, 

"Why don't you take my laptop? I never use it anyway. I have three computers. You might as well take one." I sat there in complete surprise for a second, guffawing at her, then gathered myself enough to ask  if she was serious. "Of course!" she said.

I jumped up and down and thanked her profusely all night long and into the next morning and when I stepped on the greyhound to go home the next day I took extra care to make sure it wasn't jostled too much, and when I got home I immediately got it out of its bag and plugged it in and tried to connect to the internet even though I didn't know the password and was pretty sure it wouldn't work without it. Which it didn't, and I had to wait. But waiting has never stopped me from being excited, and every day I took it out and tried to make it work on a stolen connection, though those never worked either.

And now you're thinking I'm using that computer right now to happily write this blog.

But you'd be wrong. My room mate doesn't remember the wireless password so she's going to do some research and figure it out. But she's letting me use her computer in the meantime. So I can still blog and wait while the excitement mounts for the day that I can check anything online at any time I want to. What a luxury.