Rachel

Rachel and I had a pretty interesting beginning. In fact, she hated me. When I first came over to visit the girls when they moved to Bobcat, Rachel was one of their roommates. I had just come from work, so I was dressed as such, plaid dress pants and a cardigan. I was just hanging out with them while they cooked dinner and then I left to head home to make my own.

Later that week, I was informed that Rachel thought I was stuck up. Me? Noooo. "Who does she think she is?"

Well, late, during the year, we got really close. We didn't actually start hanging out one on one until after she graduated though. Everyone had left for the summer and she was staying at the apartment by herself. So, I rounded up my super Nintendo and headed over there for some good old fashion fun.

We played into the wee hours of the morning. This was also the same weekend that Gerad and I really starting talking. That's right, Rachel is totally to blame. If she hadn't gone to bed, I may have never answered that phone.

After she left to go back home, we would see her every now and then. The infamous wedding crash, Sarah S. and Ben's birthday party. She made them cupcakes and ate about half herself. This is significant because she is lactose intolerant. Guess who had to take care of her the next day? Fun!

She also got us amazing tickets to the Braves Game through her dad's company. We were sitting right behind the dugout. Hey batter, batter, batter!

Shortly thereafter, she decided that she wanted to go abroad. And boy did she. She lived in South Korea for two years. Each time that we would have our annual Holiday Dinner, we would video it and send it to her and speak with her via skype.

In fact, just one second [searching the interweb here, ah ha!]

Here, and here , and here are the videos of dinner, and here is the other that we shot of our last dinner in Milly. The last one is of Billy, Me and Sarah S. taking the Christmas Ham out of the oven. Awww, our house was so cute.

Anyway. While Rachel was away, she sent us all kinds of cute greeting cards in Korean, I still have most of them filed away, waiting to be scrap booked.

We haven't seen her in a few years though. The last time that I did see her was at her father's funeral. My heart absolutely broke for her and her sister. The really sad thing is that where they buried her father is the same cemetery where Billy's father and my sister are buried as well. Kind of a morbid connection, but unless you have been down that road (and trust me you don't want to) you really wouldn't understand.

Anyway, I do miss my peanut thumbs. Perhaps we could all get together soon for a hockey game.