RevGalBlogPals began around 2004/5 when a group of us somehow found each other on blogs.
Today, write about how you met a friend/group of friends. Where? How? How have the relationships changed; how have they stayed the same?
Valerie as Hello Kitty, Halloween 2014
I met my friend Valerie when I came to interview for my job at UNT. That was eighteen years ago, so it's the longest-lived friendship of my life (except that I enjoy with my family members).
She was working as the newly hired administrative assistant in the Study Abroad office, starting that summer. I came to UNT in September. She was the first person I really knew, and the first person I spent time with, because we did things together with and for our exchange students.
That first year, we had a Thanksgiving dinner at my home for the students and our staff. It was her first introduction to Big Idea Woman Butler: the one who has fantastic ideas without necessarily thinking them all the way through. In this case, it turned out fine. The weather was fantastic, so the 20+ people who came were able to spill out of my little duplex into the yard (both front and back!) and a great time was had by all.
We also took that first group to Six Flags over Texas at some point during the year. I realized that I was not as young as I had been. The students all took off togther as soon as we went in the gates, and Val and I spent the day together. Dutifully (?) we went on a bunch of rides and did all the things. Gosh, I was tired at the end of that day.
Over the 14 years that we worked together daily, we did any number of work-related things; she was my right hand person in every way. We also became fast friends. We are both big readers and we enjoy the same kinds of humor. We are also very different in many ways (I am not dressed up for Halloween, today, for instance..)
When I moved out of the study abroad job, we decided to meet for pre-work coffee one day a week, to ensure that we stayed caught up. Eventually that wasn't enough, and now we also meet for dinner one night a week, with a brisk walk before. We've had to be intentional about keeping that up, but it is absolutely worth it. Now she works at the other university in town, but we still meet at least twice a week. With the removal of the work relationship we are able to be more fully ourselves together. What a blessing. What a gift.
