Trudy

My best friend is named Trudy Victoria Andrzejewski.  She is exactly 338 days younger than I am, and have know each other and been friends since the day she was born.  When my family moved to Cleveland, we moved next door to the Andrzejewski's, and our parents have been friends since.  When Trudy was born, our mother's thought, how perfect, we can pass down Katie's clothes to Trudy.  But after probably six months this was no longer possible.  She grew tall and fast, while I didn't grow much.  These days, however, we are the same size and have very similar tastes (go figure) so we are able to share and trade.  On multiple occasions, we have met wearing either the exact same outfit, which is ridiculous, and more often we have been wearing very similar things.  For example, a red plaid flannel shirt with navy blue shorts and a brown belt, navy blue keds, our hair half up and tortuous shell sunglasses.  I don't just mean a white t-shirt and jeans, this goes way beyond that.

We only went to the same school until I was in fifth grade, but that never stood in our way of having a sleep over almost every weekend - well, me sleeping over at her house.  We tried to have sleep overs at my house, but she somehow always ended up in her own bed in the morning (it was only next door).

When my family outgrew our house, we moved 1/2 a mile down the street.  Trudy and I arranged a meeting spot in between our two houses, at the "potty house" and would often call the other and just say "let's meet halfway."  We would meet to go on walks, to go to each other's house, or most recently, to go to On The Rise, our favorite bakery.  They of course know her by name, and reserve two chocolate croissants whenever she tells them we are coming.

We have always dreamed of marrying twins and having a double wedding, and practiced it very often with our barbies.

Trudy is the most motivated person I know, which is very funny because I am the least motivated person  I know.  My sisters asked me last week how it has felt to grow up in her shadow.  I told them it was totally worth it to get to be her bff.

It has been said that your best friends are the ones you fight with the most, because its their opinion you care about the most.  I can understand why someone would say this, but in our case, it is quite the opposite.  We have been in one fight, and it goes a little something like this...

When we were about 5 and 6 years old, I spent the night and didn't pack any clothes for the next day.  This happened often, and in the morning, I asked if I could borrow some clothes.  On the top of her laundry bin was a pair of blue short-alls (overalls that were shorts) that had purple and blue flowers all over them.  They used to be mine, and since I decided they were no longer fashionable, I had given them to her.  She tossed them over to me giggling, and said that I could wear them for the day.  I giggled back, and tossed them back to her.  Our giggles quickly faded,  and we continued to toss them back and forth, until one toss of the short-alls caused the metal part to hit me in the eye.  Because we stayed up late talking, I was a little more tired and therefore irritable that morning, so I decided to have a fit, and started to cry.  Trudy was not having any of that, so she said either I could wear them or go home.  I left and went to sit in her little brother's room in my pajamas and she went downstairs for breakfast.  From the plastic blow-up couch in Michael's room, I could hear Lori (her mom) ask Trudy where I was.  Trudy answered in as snarky a voice she could produce, "I don't know, crying!"  Lori ordered her to go upstairs and apologize immediately, without knowing anything about what had happened except that I was upset.  She figured out quickly roughly what had happened.  Trudy stomped up every single creaky step until she reached the top, peaked her head around the door frame, and mumbled "I'm sorry."  I said, "(sniff) me too." I put on the short-alls, and we walked downstairs together to enjoy our delicious raspberry pop-tarts (Trudy always gave me the crust of hers) and chocolate milk.

We never needed to fight about anything else.