3 months

It has been three months today.....

Today I am grateful for my friend Erin. And mostly grateful for the fact that she is "hot!" Yes you heard me right. You see....if Erin wasn't hot.....then Cody and all of his friends wouldn't have had any reason to want me to be friends with them. We hadn't been living in Portland very long. For some bizarre reason Cody made friends way faster than I did. (okay, so it really wasn't bizarre...he was darling to look at and sweet as can be....he was just shy and quiet while I was bubbly and out going. Maybe I scared people?!?! I don't know.....) I still remember the day that Cody and all his friends REALLY talked to me. It was after school one day at the very beginning of my sophomore year.....

"Hey Chiara, (oh my gosh...they said MY name...they are actually talking to ME....breath....act cool) who is your friend that you were walking down the hall with after lunch today?"

"uhhhhh.....I don't know."

"She has dark hair....dark eyes....she's really hot."

"Oh, her name is Erin. But she's not really my friend. I don't know her very well....I only have one class with her."

"Well, we think you should be friends with her. You should call her, invite her over to your house or something....."

Long story short....they wouldn't let up. I finally got the guts to call her a few weeks later after their pestering finally got to me. That phone call was the beginning of a fabulous friendship that I'll always cherish. But let's be honest....all these guys used me to get to my hot friend. And I'm okay with that. I don't think it took them too long to figure out that I wasn't half bad either.... She ended up dating one of them, completely denying another, and quietly broke the hearts of all the rest.

Cody taught Erin and I how to drive a stick shift. Of course he was WAY more patient with her and she got way longer turns....but regardless, it was fun. We were BAD...and I mean B-A-D! I thought for sure we were going to completely ruin his truck. If I close my eyes I can still see him grinning, shaking his head, and saying...."You dumb girls!"

Cody and I were inseperable throughout High School. And I'm so grateful for that. Grateful for the time we had to be best friends....not just siblings. Cody would come in my room nearly every night and sit on my bed and talk to me while I did my homework. We'd talk about everything and anything. We'd laugh, he'd make fun of the music that I liked, he helped me with my homework, and we'd confide in each other and talk about who we had crushes on. Of course he still had his "big mean older brother" role to fill.....when we walked to school he walked on the other side of the street than me. He left me stuck under the garage door one morning and walked to school without me. When we drove to school he loved to make me sit in the back seat of the truck instead of on the front seat next to him. He NEVER let me forget that I asked Dad if I could sneak out one night....ruining the whole master plan of "sneaking out." He always told me that I talked too much and too loud...especially in the mornings....

Man, I wish he was here to give me a hard time. I miss him.


The day Erin and I got our drivers licenses.....we were sooooo cool...or so we thought.