I met Shelane the very first day of high school at Joliet Catholic Academy.

My penchant for melancholy being what it is, I remember that day fondly, noting it as one of the more pivotal days in my life. After all, that hot August day in 1990 is the day I met the majority of the girls whom I count amongst my nearest and dearest. If I'm honest, it was my meeting with Shelane that is most memorable from that day. It was, in all sincerity, the oddest of starts for a friendship.

We were standing in line, single-file, waiting to walk into the campus chapel for what I can only guess was a Mass for the freshmen class. Shelane and I had briefly met minutes before up at our lockers and made our way to the chapel together. For some reason, we hadn't introduced ourselves yet but amidst the commotion of trying to wrangle a herd of yapping, nervous, excited 14-year-olds into alphabetical order, she and I deduced that by virtue of our locker placements that we were to stand together.

"By the way," I said. "I'm Erin. But you can call me 'Shea.' Everyone calls me that."
"I'm Shelane," she said.

And we got into line.

Shelane and I hung out occassionally through high school, though never became particularly close. We chatted every day at our lockers, exchanging the latest, but most of our quality time talking to each other through the years was spent when our class would line up together before the start of every program, procession and ceremony. Through the crowds, Lanie and I would always go crazy looking for the other, always knowing that no matter what, Shea came before Shelane's-Last-Name and together was where we needed to be.

When we lined up together for the last time, at graduation, we recreated our first conversation before the ceremony, walking into the cathedral giggling as only 18-year-old girls can do, thinking ourselves so grown-up, so much more mature than we were all of those four years earlier.

If you ply us with a few drinks, we'll do it to this day and we'll giggle just as we did ten years ago.

So much has changed since high school, but probably one of the biggest changes is the nature of my friendship with Shelane. Rare does the day go by when we don't talk or text message each other; this past Sunday I got a message from her noting that she hadn't heard from me on Saturday and she now "gets worried" if we don't talk every day. And not worried in that I'm upset with her or even that something has happened, just that somehow it doesn't feel as though the day is complete until we've talked.

We talk so often that we assume we've told each other everything. When we got together a few weeks ago, after having not seen each other for a week or so, I was greeted by a Shelane with her trademark long hair chopped off to her shoulders. She simply assumed that she'd told me; after all, she said, she was on the phone with me minutes before the stylist put scissors to strands.

This weekend, Lanie is the first of my friends to turn ... 30. And it's freaking her out. No doubt she'll rethink our friendship after she reads this and learns I've announced the landmark for all of the Internet. But it's important to note that she's the one ushering this new decade in for all of us and, aside from the occassional kvetch, she's doing it with grace and humor.

This Friday night, we're all gathering at Jacquie's not only to celebrate Shelane's birthday, but to celebrate her. And it's funny. As much as I knew at 14 that wherever Shelane is is where I'm supposed to be, I know it even moreso now.

Happy Birthday, Lanie.

Posted by Erin at 11:11 AM | filed under: Odds and ends