Biscuit and Gravy

I have this best friend.... of my whole (almost) lifetime.  I mean literally.... Since we were seven and my dad and her grandpa got together and decided that since we were the same age... 24 days apart... that we should be pals.  Little did they know that 21 years later we'd still be giggling on the phone and telling each other secrets.  Granted, we don't play Barbie anymore and rarely have sleepovers (she's in Washington state) but we still spend a majority of our time talking, and not much is off limits.  Even though we're ages and two time zones away from each other and we have our ups and downs, when shit hits the fan she's right there to tell me that things are going to be fine and to pull my head out of my ass and deal with things.  Not exactly in those words as she's a little sweeter than I am, but something to the same effect.  Hopefully I manage to do the same for her.  I love her madly.  Like almost trade my cat off for bail money should the need arise, love her.  Thankfully for Hellbeast, she's as mentioned sweeter than I am and bailing her out shouldn't be necessary anytime soon. 

My first memory of my lifelong pal is of us standing beside our male relatives while they said "Nadia this is Jessica, Jessica, Nadia.  Now y'all go play." and us kind of shrugging and running off like we'd been doing it our whole lives.  I envied her hair immediately.  She had all this thick curly hair pulled back in a neat braid and I had well... an uneven mop of stringy dirt colored hair.  I thank my sister Alicia for the uneven part.  She wanted to be a hairdresser at the ripe age of 6 and I got a shaggy cut. The rest they say is history.  Her family was military so she spent second and part of third grade in the same school I was in and then moved off.  Fortunately her grandparents lived right up the dirt road from my family and when she visited we picked up where we left off.  She was also here part of 7th grade.  Through all the years and all the moves we've both made we've managed to find each other again and pick up where we left off.  Now we're all grown up and bordering on 30 in a couple of years (Eek!!), our hair has changed dramatically in length color and style over the years with mine no longer uneven or stringy and hers no longer in a neat braid, we love nail polish almost more than we like food or wine (which is a lot...Hello, we're southern), purses are like balms to our souls, we own enough makeup to make Tammy Faye Baker up for a week, and we can bargain hunt like freaks.  Expensive products for cheap or cheaper than retail? Sign us up. Also shoes *shudder* I'm a shoe ho and she feeds my addiction by sending me sites for shoes that I can drool over and try to order and hide in my closet before they're noticed. 

Now on to biscuit and gravy.  These are the names we bestowed upon ourselves after an email-fest while we should have been working.  I don't remember the exact emails or texts following the email fest, but it went something to the effect of telling her that she was as southern as biscuits and gravy. So somehow in our interesting way we became Biscuit and Gravy with me being the gravy part of the dynamic duo.  Biscuit pops up on my phone and email when we communicate and that's what my son calls her.  As nicknames go they're not exactly flashy or something we'd like to go by to the random public.... But between us it's a pretty kick ass thing.  It reminds us we're southern and we just mix, blend, and though biscuits and gravy have different flavors by different cooks they're still similar and still rock together.  Besides Biscut and Jam just didn't sound as awesome. 

                                      So Biscuit, my favored pal of a lifetime... I love you mucho.