This is Dedicated to the One I Love...

My friend Christine is moving to California. This is devastating news to me. If I didn’t have Jason, a total pit of depression and loneliness would soon be opening up to swallow me whole. He won’t replace her, but he will help me feel less alone when she is gone. Christine is one of the MAJOR if not only reasons I moved to Boston. I can’t even picture my “Boston” life, no my life, without her. We’ve been partners in crime, sistahs in bike gangs, and confidantes through tears and laughs. I’m not sure now what my appeal and ties to Boston will be, or for how long, without Christine here to explore and accompany me.

Christine and I go way back, I’m talking like 1994 to 1998 high school days. Back when Christine wore more black (admit it, you were close to Goth!), dyed her hair purple, wore more jewelry, made her own clothes (am I making this up?), and was attached at the hip to Charleen, another mutual friend. I can’t remember the first time we met, but I know I admired her from a distance before we were friends. She looked and dressed different than most people I knew, and she seemed so cool and confident. We’d be at parties together, but I never had the opportunity, or the balls, to make her more than an acquaintance at the time.

At the end of high school, Christine went off to Boston for college (Northeastern) and I went my merry way to Vermont. (Saint Michael’s). Somehow through emails and the few gatherings of our high school group, Christine and I finally bridged the gap and became friends. An event that solidified it that I recall bright and shiney in my mind is when she and Charleen came to visit me at school. We went to a party. This is where I saw and met the fun, wild, and hilarious Christine I came to love more and more. She and I played grab ass. She drank “like a man” and swore like a trucker. She mixed and mingled on her own. She would talk about anything and everything from music to books to movies to art and SEX. And she was always so thoughtful and concerned about her friends; even in a drunken stupor Christine never loses her cool (ok, not often). After we all crammed drunk into the back of someone’s car to get home and I knew she was a keeper.


Since those college days, Christine and I have become real friends. When I need to cry, to talk something out, plan something, or need step by step advice, Christine is there for me no matter what time of day or night it is. She has taught me through just being her how to be a more thoughtful person and a more intentional friend. And whenever something fun comes to town, I know Christine will be the first to say she’ll go with me or the first one to beat me to finding out about it. But no matter what, she always invites me with her, everywhere. Who does that? Doesn’t she get sick of me? She shares and gives so much to those she cares about, it is amazing! She is the kind of woman to remember your birthday when no one else does. To send you that random postcard you desperately need on a bad day, just because. To share home made muffins with you and invite you over for dinner. To plan crazy adventures to Amsterdam, Germany, North Carolina, or where ever; she LOVES to travel! It is her very sense of curiosity, wander lust and adventure that is finally pulling her away from me, from Boston, to something new.

I feel privileged to have been initiated into the life and times of Christine. To know she has a thing about clean teeth. To know she doesn’t like mushrooms or olives (I know, totally weird woman here). She takes working out seriously and likes to be healthy. Her awesome gluten free creative cooking days. Things she likes - little unique toys, candy from china town, new bands, lacy tank tops. That she likes to drink beer. Eat pizza. Chocolate. And always ice cream. And don’t bowl with her or play air hockey - she school yo’ ass. Or how when she is unsure of something, she gets a little timid to try because she likes to know what she’s doing, and needs some encouragement to believe in herself. I believe in her. I’ve not met many people as logical, smart, resourceful and creative as Christine. She finds the best deals on clothes, cuts coupons for shopping, and can pull a plan together for any group of fickle friends not making decisions.

Boston won’t be completely uncool, but it sure is losing one woman who brought something special and rockin’ to the scene. Christine is a big dreamer, a woman who wants to accomplish a list of to dos as long as me in her lifetime. And knowing the kind of person she is, she will. Already she has a few checked off. She started an all girl band called The Unitards who have played a number of shows around town. (and will have their last send off August 21st! be there or be squared mothafuckahs!) She wrote her own music. She took a printing class. She knows how to sew. Cook. She’s traveled to who knows how many countries, states, and cities. And finally, one that was so very important to her – she’s moving to somewhere to learn about a new city.

Christine makes every minute count. She squeezes as many activities, people, and plans into a day as possible. I give her major recognition for her tireless efforts in being there for everyone and still making time for MORE! She must get tired, but she never shows it! She just keeps going and with a shrug, she’d say something like, “I’d rather see you than not see you and if this is the only way to do it, fuck it. I’ll do it.” Christine makes Lance Armstrong look like a pussy in her dedication to using her time on Earth wisely and in her devotion to her friends and family.

I hope you know you’re gonna make me cry for you…a lot when this is through and your car drives away. And you know I only cry about three times a year. (lie – I cry once every month due i.e. the red tide) Maybe start now, while I don’t have to see you, as I sit in my work cubicle writing this for you. Looking through the pics I have on my computer for this, gawd, the memories are all flooding through me, and I really want to cry now. We’ve done so much together Christine. And seriously, I have so much fun with you! Oh gawd, it is sneaking up behind me….you’re leaving. You won’t be just a few blocks away for me to pop over whenever I feel like it. I won’t be babysitting your goldfish anymore. No more Flying Vs. No more dirty sex talks. Or sleepovers.

This is not good bye forever. This is not the end of our adventures together. Life changes and we and our relationship will change with it. But we are friends Christine, for life. (I hope you knew that when we exchanged blood and tattooed our names on each others asses that time in Reno)

Good luck on this new part of your life Christine. And always remember….

I love you!