Setting Sail

At what point in a life's timeline does one start when beginning a Blog?  I've been contemplating this for the past few days, as I have been toying with the idea of actually keeping a Blog.  Well, first things first I guess.  I am actually pretty lucky that I even figured this stuff out.  I usually have to wait until I see my best friend, Deej, so she can do these things for me.  Granted, I DID call her..  And I may have even had an IM conversation on the Facebooks with her.  But I did it all by myself.  Well...  Mostly.

Most of you know me as Anddi or Andrea or even by my Derby name, Black Pearl.  I'm short in stature, I have green eyes, I love Star Wars, good music, tea, adventure, and I am pretty freekin hilarious.  My life has been a series of fortunate and misfortunate moments filled with craziness, awe and amazing people.  I have an incredible ability to attract insanity, sometimes in the form of really strange circumstances and sometimes in the form of really strange people.  I have been lucky, in my 29 years, to have found and held onto a handful of amazing human beings, but it wasn't until recent years that I have found myself surrounded my a multitude of diverse, interesting, kind, adventurous, delightfully crazy awesome people.  Seriously.  In the last 2 years, I have made more "Best Friends" than I have had in all the rest of my years combined.  In fact, I have so many Best Friends now, that there is only one I actually give the title to anymore.  Deej has been my friend for more than half of my life.  She has put up with my insanity, my love sickness, my addiction, my bitchiness, my stupidity, and rescued me more times than I can even remember.  she totally deserves the title.  Well..  I guess it looks like we are going to be talking about my favorite people for a minute.  I hope Skot doesn't mind that I copy him.  Lets start with Deej.

I met Diana when I was in the 9th grade at WBL High School.  I was dragged to an after school meeting for a theatre group called F.A.C.E.S. by my friend Heather.  I subsequently met a group of people who would, for the next 4 years, make my life miserable, exciting, dramatic and interesting.  If any of you have ever been in theatre, then you know what I am talking about.  Deej was a little more grounded than the rest of the WBL theatre group.  She wasn't as melodramatic...  In fact (as long as there wasn't copious amounts of Cherry Coke involved) she was pretty mellow.  This is why upon first meeting me, she didn't care for me that much.  Allow me to explain.  I'm hyper.  Really hyper.  I may even be borderline to full on ADD.  There are times when I am consciously aware that I am being obnoxious and completely ridiculous, and I just can't control myself.  Suffice to say, it took a while for Deej to warm up to me.  Our group became incestuously close.  Looking back, it was kind of nasty.  For some of the people in the group, I think being IN the group was a secret plot to torture each other.  There was boyfriend/girlfriend swapping, so so so SO much drama, back stabbing and gossip...  We were more like enemies who hung out together and played stupid theatre games at parties.  Deej and I were more to the outside of the chewey melodramatic center, so we could relate to each other.  Don't get me wrong, we were teenage girls, and you bet your ass we participated in some of the shenanigans, but we could actually see and understand how stupid and futile it all was.  That in mind, we were not "Best Friends" in high school.

We had our own best friends, but we always had a good time when hanging out together.  Whether it be at a party at Josh's, out and about in Deej's hoopty, Tyrone (rest in pieces, sir) hanging out at Maplewood Mall (it makes me ill to remember doing that) or chillin in the theatre after school, we always had a good time together.  After she graduated, Deej and I lost touch.  I really didn't keep in touch with anyone when I went away to college either, so no one is to blame here.  And then something very strange happened.  I was living in Duluth at the time, and taking general credits at Lake Superior Community College.  Because I failed and dropped out of UW-Superior a couple times..  I was at my first class for that semester and I was sitting in the seats of the very tiny tech college theatre, when I looked up and in walked Deej!  "D.J!" I yelled at her.  She almost peed herself, well, maybe not..  But she WAS surprised!  We spent a couple days in class together getting back in touch, until life happened and we lost touch again.

Shortly thereafter, I was working as a cashier/event coordinator at Michael's Arts and Crafts in Duluth, when in walked Deej!  I think the universe was trying to tell us something..  To make a long story less long, I eventually moved in with Deej in Superior, until she moved back to the cities, and I moved to Fargo (this is skipping some big events in my life, but that's for a different day) we briefly lost touch, but thanks to the invention of social networking we found each other again.  We kept in touch mostly online for a couple years, and then I "moved" to California.  Another long story I will save for a different day.  Eventually I had to come back to Minnesota with my tail between my legs, on a four day bus trip, financed by begged for money from my Daddy (who also bails me out more than I deserve) and $40 that Deej deposited in my account so I had money for food on the way back.  Deej gave me my first "big girl bed" when she left Duluth, bailed me out when I left California, helped me move back to the Cities, carts my ass to and from Roller Derby Bouts and crazy adventures (remind me to tell you guys about Brandon, Minnesota sometime!) found me a new "big girl bed" when I moved to St. Paul, let me cry on her shoulder a thousand times, knows my deepest darkest secrets...  Deej is as nerdy as me, knows how to tell me to shut up, knows how to have a good time, and I seriously couldn't live without her.  For cereal.  She knows me better than anyone does.  And I don't have to tell her how I feel about anything.  She just knows.  At this point, she's more my sister than my friend.  I love you Deej <3