Today is Crindalyn’s birthday. We are exactly six months apart in age. She is an amazing mother, a genuine friend, a hard worker, and a beautiful soul – inside and out.
How do you quantify a relationship that has spanned over a quarter of a century, through love, laughter, tears, heartbreak, job changes, marriage, divorce, kids, relocations, trauma, adventure, road trips, dreams, and reality? You just can’t. At least I can’t.
Crindalyn and I have been friends since Junior High, but we became really good friends in high school. It all started with her knee injury and needing someone to carry her books to class because she was on crutches. From that point on we were inseparable.
I can’t count the number of times we ditched school to go hang out at one of the other towns in the Grande Ronde Valley. There were many times we made curfew by the skin of our teeth, and only by sheer luck because we didn’t get a speeding ticket on the way home.
“Cruising” the strip in La Grande in her mom’s turquoise metallic van when we were 15 (her mom in the back seat so we were legal). Once we were legal, driving the blue van and not being able to take a corner without hitting a curb.
California Coolers (grin).
Sneaking into college dances.
Teaching her how to drive a stick shift – through a drive-through car wash of all places – BAD IDEA!
Camping & swimming at Lake Owyhee.
Piling 4 or 5 people in the front of my Ford Ranger to go play in the mountains.
You name it, we did it.
As we’ve aged, our adventures have become much more tame (and legal), but no less meaningful, actually probably more so. I count myself lucky to have been able to call her my friend for the past 28 years (HOLY CRAP, that’s a long time!), and I am looking forward to the next 28 years of adventures.
Happy birthday to the most amazing friend I have. I love you, Gremlin! 😉
Nature Girl. Mom. Wife. Friend. Photographer. Sewer. Crafter. Artist.
To borrow a phrase – “Yeet Ye Riche”