Matron Jo

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One of my oldest and best friends. We’ve gone from playing pretend together to hanging out after prom to now, well, being in eachother’s weddings. She’s a bastion of common >sense, quiet support, and visuo-spatial skills (She’s the only person I know who can solve a Rubik’s cube in less than five minutes!) When not devouring worlds (if you don’t get that, don’t worry) Joanna works as a graphic designer for our local newspaper, distributes yummy cooking mixes (let her know if you want to host a party for her) and is working on a degree which will allow her to design characters for video games…whew! She’s seen me through numerous major breakups, exams, fights with parents and significant others (yes, even John) and we’ve lived in different cities for- ok, technically the entire time we’ve been friends. And it’s uncanny how often we’ll say the exact same thing at the exact same time, particularly considering how different we are in many ways (She actually seems to know where her keys are most of the time, as well as mine…John has some big shoes to fill…) (in a figurative sense)

Bridesmaid Val

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Another of my oldest and bestest friends, Valerie hosted many a night of pre-adolescent sugar fueled silliness when she, I and Joanna began getting together to plan world domin- I mean, to watch movies and dance until dawn. She moved away when we were in Middle school but despite my scatterbrained difficulty in returning letters and phonecalls kept in touch and even showed up for Jo’s and my highschool graduations (she made it to both of them in one night!), came out for Joanna’s wedding last spring, and even came and saw me in France this year (oh yeah, and Paris and Chartres and les Galeries Lafayette and all sorts of other amazing sights) . She prizes friendship highly and is highly to be prized as a friend. She’s also very generous and devoted to making the world a better place, evidenced by her spending a year in DC working at a hospital for the homeless…where she met someone she ran into at Jo’s wedding last year. But you can ask her more about that J. She’s currently earning a masters in non-profit management at the University of North Texas.