My Pal Amy...

This is what I call Amy. Pal. It's a name I reserve just for her (and more formally My Pal Amy...) accidentally coined by her brother years ago one day when I called her...for some odd reason (teenage hormones?) the phrasing made us hysterical and it just stuck. I also have a bit of a problem with best friend. All of my friends are wonderful...of course, but to call someone best? Well, not only does that denote a competition, but maybe one that you can be unseated from at any moment. Just one false move and someone usurps your position?

That's too much pressure to put someone under when they are a friend.

Amy and I have been pals for the better part of more than 25 years now.

Which seems odd, because we're barely over 25 ourselves.

Mostly.

It is Amy's birthday very soon...and we are stealing a moment to escape down the mountain.

Years and years ago...Amy's mother use to rent us a hotel room for the weekend (cause we weren't old enough) and we would go to the Phoenix area and feel luxurious and grown up for the weekend...Her mother would always lend us her car (because ours were both reliable around town but probably not for long distances, or didn't have air conditioning) Her car was a stick shift...Amy, of course, knew how to drive a stick but wasn't as confident as I was, and we'd wait until we'd get out of view of the house and switch places...and try to remember to do the same thing upon our arrival home.

We would always go out dancing too...something we're going to try to do again this weekend, which always makes me marvel a little bit when I look over towards Amy and realize how many years we've danced next to each other. We're also driving one of our own cars...and meeting up with friends and hopefully spending some time by the pool (I don't care what anyone looks like in a bathing suit...so you can all stop with that excuse) partake in good food...and maybe a bit of shopping...generally feeling grown up and luxurious.

It's amazing in all of this time, we've not run out of things to talk about. But, our subjects keep changing as we mature. ahem. Plus? It seems as if no matter what has happened, Amy and I share this bond with each other...we are usually so connected, we can read each other so well...often we don't speak all of our sentences out loud...which confuses people to no end, because we hear each other so well, we never quite know when we're doing it. This also makes people wary to play games with us...because we make such a great team. A friendship like this, the chance to get to know someone so well...doesn't happen very often. I cherish our relationship and I don't know what my life would be like if Amy wasn't in it...

And, I hope I don't ever have to know.

(the above photos were taken on purpose at almost every stop we made on our Zion trip...for the pure cheesiness of a series of pictures with the same pose. I think our other companions may have a couple as well...it made us giggle to no end every time we posed for our shot...)