Friendship Files: Pen Pals-And a Birthday Gift

When I was younger I was an avid reader. Now that I'm older...I'm an avid reader. There was this series I read in third grade called Pen Pals.

 It was a group of four friends, and one of the girl's moved away, and the other three girls wrote her letters, which essentially told their happenings. I loved the letter format of the book. It wasn't the most popular series, or even my favorite, BUT it was my most life altering to date. In the back of the book was this little slip of paper you could send into the company with your name and address, and a self addressed envelope. I sent three of them in, and got the responses from three other girls. Two of the girls had 'Chris/Kris-' something names, and the third lived on a Circle, just like I did. I figured this was the only way to 'match' they had since the only information they were using were our names, ages, and addresses. From then on, you could write them a letter, and thus began the friendships. Two of the three girls wandered off in letter land after awhile, though I did write to one gal through the end of elementary all the way through the first few years of college (Kristy up in Oregon). I don't know what happened... Life? BUT the third letter friend was a girl named, Regan from Big Flats, NY. I still remember the day I got the slip in the mail b/c I thought the name was so unusual. She's one of my best friends today (20+ years later...and counting), life is weird, huh? The above picture is probably from the third time we met. We traveled back and forth through the summers. In an age before cell phones, and emails...letters, and the occasional (expensive) phone call were how we interacted.  The picture below is from her wedding a few years ago. It's the only one I had handy, but I'd say it pretty much paints the right picture. As soon as half the guest left, I changed out of my Maid of Honor gear, and started messing around...like the 11 year old I'll always be around the friends I trust the most.  Regan got some interesting photos out of her photo collection...and she's more than fine with that.

My 'pen pal' had a birthday last month (the 12th).   I can't really sum 'her' up in one post, but this'll be a start, and maybe one day I'll continue, but...this is the apron I made that reminded me of Regan. My very high tech process is here. 

Really-it looks nothing like the choice she would have made on her own-she's more a pink or red girl (just like me, actually)-but it's the choice I knew she would have made if I told her to-isn't that nice of me? I like being bossy, and she lets me. I like telling her what to do, and she lets me. She doesn't listen, or do what I tell her to do, but she keeps calling and letting me talk. And when it comes to the gifts I send her, she doesn't have a lot of choice, except to love it...and she will because she's that' kind of friend. I also added this little board I made months ago and blogged about the inspiration and process here for her to add to her kitchen (reds and black, just like mine).

Skittles are kind of (one of) our things. Happy Birthday, pen pal.