In honor of my dear friend Kristin’s birthday today, I wanted my “favorites” to be about her. So here are some of my favorite early memories with her! Kristin was truly the coolest, funniest person ever. Indeed, I lamented to her mom this week, “Why am I not Kristin already?!” 😫😂
Cute as buttons
Kristin and I actually started out as blog friends! She lived twenty minutes away, and yet our paths never would have crossed without blogging. This was many moons (and blogs) ago, in 2008. I remember seeing other bloggers talk about having text-level (!!) relationships with their blog friends, and to me, that meant you’d made it as a blogger.
The first time my bffl (we co-wrote our blog) and I met Kristin in person, she posted about it afterward, and said we were, DIRECT QUOTE, “cute as buttons”!! That stamp of approval had us practically skipping around our dorm room with glee. “KRISTIN THINKS WE’RE CUTE AS BUTTONS!!!!” 😂😂
Windex Margaritas
When Sophie (bffl) and I graduated from undergrad, Kristin very sweetly took us out to dinner. (I think we were skipping around the dorm when we got that invite too, haha.) Margaritas were her drink of choice at the time, so we copy-cats got them too, and mine was blue. Like, Windex blue. So we started calling it a “Windex Margarita.” Also, my fries came in this weird cylindrical thing, so Kristin dubbed them my “ice cream fries”!
This was the first time we really hung out, I believe, and I look back on that spring night so fondly. With graduation days away, it was the end of an era… but also the start of another. Sophie moved away right after graduation, and while she’s still my bffl, Kristin eventually took over the role of in-person bestie (/therapist 😁).
New family
I’m not the biggest fan of my birthday. But in 2012, Kristin gave me the sweetest little birthday “party.” (The guest list was three people: Kristin, her boyfriend, and their cat.) She got me a tiara, like five birthday cards (we are card-loving soulmates), the North Face backpack I’d been eyeing (like WHAAAT), and chocolate peanut butter cupcakes (my fave!). It was such a sweet little celebration, and it meant so much that she took the time to do that for me. (Though by this point, we were hanging out like three times a week and going to King of Prussia to buy dumb things at Sephora. If that’s not friendship, WHAT IS?)
But the new family didn’t stop there. I now know her parents and her sister well too. (And I still know her bf and their cat, of course!) 💖
Due to the time we spent together while Kristin was on hospice, her mom has truly become my second mom—we text almost every day! (Little did I know I would get a text-level relationship with another blogger AND her mom! 😂) I was devastated when I realized that she had to go home to South Carolina. I had gotten so used to her living with Kristin that I forgot that she actually didn’t!
So yeah, that’s our gal. One of the most hilarious, devoted friends you could ask for. 💖
It’s so bizarre to have this empty space in my life now, but the memories help. In the past, I always tried so hard to not mention a deceased loved one to someone who was grieving… but now that I’ve been the grieving person, it’s given me a much different perspective. I love talking about Kristin! It keeps her alive to me. 😊
