One day my friend Rachel sends me a note saying, "Wha? Ha? What's this FaceBook thing and how do I make it work?" Next thing I know she has more FaceBook friends than I do AND she has a blog.
What can I tell you about Rachel? Sophomore year at OU we shared a "common area" in O'Bleness hall, plus a slew of common friends. We also shared clothes and beers and I don't know ... other things ... like homework. Yeah, homework.
Rachel was the fellow party-goer I wrote about here. That was sophomore year. The next year, I took a year off from school. The year after that, I came back and she was taking a year off. Then during what should have been our senior year but turned out to be our junior year (you following me here?), we ended up working together at the same Sports Tavern. The story about how that came to be is a funny one too. I'll tell you.
I'd been bartending for a few years at that point, and my boss Shawn was always looking for decent waitresses. I said, "My friend Rachel's been waiting tables full time for the past year. She just moved back to Athens. You should interview her." He said, "Okay. Call her." And this is how the interview went. I stood behind the bar while Shawn and Rachel sat at the bar, and we all settled on a fair way to determine whether or not she should work with us: If Rachel could match Shawn beer-for-beer all night long, Shawn would hire her on the spot.
Back then (long before these past seven years of me being pregnant, trying to get pregnant or nursing), I could hold my beer. Still, on a good night, I'd maybe match Shawn one beer for every two of his.
So, this is the point in the story where you realize exactly why I haven't mentioned the name of the bar. Just in case there's an equal opportunity fundamentalist reading this blog. After all, there could have been a lightweight drinker or even (gasp) a non-drinker out there who may have wanted the job. Such an interview process would not have been fair to them. It was hardly fair to Rachel - but she held her own during my entire shift. Then we closed down the bar and walked to a few others where she continued to match Shawn one bottled Busch beer after the next.
I think she started working with us two days later (she needed at least one day to recover).
Of course, Rachel and I both eventually graduated, quit the service industry, moved on and lost touch. Until one day I was talking to our mutual friend Amy from my home in Princeton, North Carolina, and I asked about Rachel. Amy said, "Let me check my address book. I know she just moved. I think she's someplace in North Carolina too ... Okay, here it is: She's in Clayton, North Carolina."
Wouldn't you know it? Clayton was 15 minutes down the road, and right on my way to work in Cary. So I called her, and we got together, hung out, and eventually bartered lawn mowers for canoes. What? Isn't that what all good friends do?
Now she's in Charlotte and I'm in Ohio, and we both have two boys and mommyblogs. Boy, how life changes.
You might remember how excited I was when Sarah started blogging. Well, I'm still no good at predicting who will get the blogging bug next - but I'm thrilled to introduce you to another friend who's unexpectedly caught it. Go check out Rachel's new blog & leave a comment. Tell her Ali sent ya.
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