Oh, Amaleeta. Higher than the moon.

Amaleeta is my oldest friend. She and I met when she had been shuttled down from Connecticut as a scared eighth grader to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where we both were terrified of everything.

(This sums up where we grew up pretty nicely.)

We remember the story differently, but Amaleeta was apparently attracted to my super cool pleather jacket and we became friends. I remember being really obsessed with the fact that she was vegetarian and ordered clothes from “Delia*s” so I stalked her until we became friends. Whichever way it happened… Amaleeta and I became best friends fast. We spent every waking moment with each other, we slept foot to head in a daybed every night during our high school years, we went to theatre camps together every summer, we got “myrtle beach drunk” and acted inappropriate together… we grew up together. One of my fondest memories was when Amaleeta got her driver’s license and we drove up and down the highway screaming Tori Amos and Radiohead at the top of our lungs. We did this almost every Friday. Then we would retire to the area all-night diner (there was only one) — where we would drink coffee until our heads popped and we would head back to my parents’ house. (I don’t know that we ever really got any rest.)

God, she is such a huge part of my life.

She moved to NYC after graduating from high school and it was the saddest day of my life. Looking back on it now, I don’t know why I was afraid to watch her drive away… nothing has changed. Every milestone in my life is marked with a phone call to Amaleeta. She was one of the first people I called after I got engaged… even though she had only met Napkin once. She is the person I can count on for help. She is the single person in my life that I can go without seeing for months, years even, and we pick up where we left off like we were still sleeping with our feet in each others’ faces.

I never imagined myself getting engaged, much less married– and Amaleeta was just as shocked when I called her with the news. But as soon as it set in, it made sense that she would be there, right beside me, like she always has been. It wouldn’t be perfect without her… It wouldn’t be right without her there with me.

Amaleeta, I don’t know that I could ever really sum up how important you are to me in a blog post. I guess all I can say is that I am so, so happy that you are a part of all of this. Because you are such a big part of me.

(Yeah, girl… that is you on my roof at fifteen.)