My Girls

Today I had lunch with my girls!  I have several really great friends and these three in particular form a tight knit group.  Here's your cast of characters:

Pam-I've known her the longest, we went to school together from kindergarten through high school.  Her dad and my mom also went to high school together.  Pam and I have been friends for almost 25 years, making her my oldest friend (outside of family).

Gabby-Gabby and I met in the 8th grade at an event for junior high students at the high school we would later attend.  We were both performing in the vocal division and we chatted outside and then ate lunch together.  We've been friends ever since!

Mandy-Mandy and I met in high school, through I can't be sure if we met in freshman year or not. I know we became friends later on.  See, we both had a crush on the same guy.  I ended up dating him for six months before he switched schools and sort of started ignoring me, then I dumped him.  She was very close friends with him throughout this, so she wasn't really a fan of mine :)  Later on, we did become friends and bonded over the romances that never really were.

We've always been a group.  This was really solidified in 12th grade British Literature class which was taught by one of my favorite teachers of all time, Mrs. Redding.  She split our class up into groups of four to work on projects (most notably, a comic book based on Beowulf).  Pam, Gabby, and Mandy were in a group with another friend of ours, but I was in a different group.  Their group was called "The Great Group of Gals".  I was an honorary member.  We've even gotten together a few times with our teacher since high school and to her, we'll always be the GGG.

Since high school, we've led more separate lives, but we have remained close.  Gabby and I went to the same college, but Mandy and Pam went elsewhere, but still in town.  We have always gotten the group together from time to time, celebrating birthdays or holidays, and more recently weddings and babies!

Which leads me to the following explanation of the pairing off of the Great Group of Gals.

In the spring of 2002, Gabby met Patrick.  The story goes that she met a guy on the internet and met Patrick through him (something like that, anyway).  They are pretty much perfect for each other.  That summer, in July, Gabby called me up to see if I might be interested in meeting a guy, a friend of Pat's.  I jumped at the chance, having been single for quite awhile.  So I was set up on a blind date.  And my blind date didn't know he was meeting me until 20 minutes before we met.  They only told him because he looked scruffy and they made him change!  That blind date changed my life.  It was on that date that I met my husband Adam.  We were engaged a year later and married the very next year.

Some time later, Gabby decided to try her match making skills for a second time. This time the lucky victim was Mandy. Mandy is a reptile enthusiast and Gabby just happened to know another!  She connected Mandy with Nate.  They've been together ever since and they will be married in August!

Fast forward to the summer of 2010.  On the Fourth of July, Pam spent some time with another friend of Gabby and Pat's, a guy named Cliff.  They had met at other G&P functions, but last years Fourth of July sealed the deal and they've been a couple since then and are going strong!

This is us on the night of our 10th high school reunion.  I'm on the left, followed by Mandy, Pam, and Gabby.

Pretty unbelievable story, huh?  It pays to stay in touch with those high school girlfriends!  I love these girls!  They are all so funny and we have the best time laughing together.  Pam is so kind and sincere.  Mandy is fun-loving and feisty.  And Gabby is sensitive and sweet.  They are some of the best friends a girl could ask for!