And now for an entry dedicated entirely to this lovely lady on the right. I was in a dark place last Friday when a foot of snow/avalanche by SoCal standards prevented me from traveling to Hertfordshire – but good news, now Julie is dropping by London in a few hours!
Although we attended the same middle school, I avoided her like the plague and/or a cafeteria special here at Queen Mary because she was on red track while I was segregated to the obviously superior blue track. Keep in mind it was a different time back then and us socializing would have been the friendship version of Romeo and Juliet – absolutely forbidden. But I digress. We became properly acquainted in high school, and for reasons I can’t explain, I initially thought Julie was shy and she assumed I was nice. Luckily we know better now.
Since then, she’s been less like a best friend and more of the sister I never had (while my brother does compete in ballroom dance competitions and will be more nurturing/sensitive/insert stereotypical feminine quality here than I’ll ever be, he doesn’t quite cut it). This could also be due to the fact that Marti and Tim love reminding me she’s the favorite on a regular basis. “She’s just like the nicer version of you!” they say, probably because they’re unaware of some of Julie’s favorite pastimes, including giving my number out to strangers because of course she took the liberty of memorizing it. Often I’ll be the victim for those times when she’s just not in the mood to have that frat guy text her – I have an inbox full of “Hey Julie, it’s Josh from the party last night!” – or, better yet, simply to randos off the streets of Long Beach. Prime example: “I hear you’re hot.” Thanks, Jules!
We first bonded in the way teenage girls typically do: by forming a rock band. Okay, so maybe that’s not so normal. But then again, most bestfriendships probably aren’t jump-started in a choir classroom, when you both wander in on the first day of school and lock eyes, thinking the same thing: we blend in here about as well as Ryan Lochte at a MENSA meeting. So while the other Broadway fanatics were practicing scales or gossiping about who was still so far in the closet they hit Narnia or whatever it is choir girls do, Julie and I joined forces to make our dreams come true. Mission #1 for me was putting all of my lyric-filled Moleskine notebooks to good use and recruiting a lead singer for my band which was obviously going to reach stardom any day now.
Long story short, we’re not exactly headlining Outside Lands anytime soon, but we sure did nail that guitar duet for “Landslide” and Weezer’s “Island in the Sun.” Either way, while my goal to shell in a few Grammys by age 18 didn’t exactly go according to plan, I’m lucky we met in that first soprano section of the bleachers because the years that followed were nothing short of hysterical, inappropriate, and of course extremely dysfunctional.
And to give you an idea of what our tumultuous musical journey was like, my conversation with some choir random on the first day of school went like this:
Guy: “You look normal. Why are you in choir?”
Me: “Uh, I want to become better at singing.”
Guy: “… So why are you in choir?”
Touché, random choir guy, touché.
The Art of Being Basic 
I have some great photos of you and Julie in your Hogwarts attire. I’ll send them.
xxx to my favorite daughter.