January 3

I seriously love the first Friday of every month.

Why?

Because I get to hang out with one of my best friends in the whole world, that's why!

I am thankful for our dance company teacher (coach?) Ms. Richards who decided in 2011 (Freshman year...gross ;) ) that our dance company fundraiser would be to have three Chick-Fil-A nights to raise money for our Kings Dominion trip that spring (I think...) and so, like the good little freshmen we were, we attended all three fundraiser nights together on the first Friday of October, November, and December 2011. After three months of spending the first Friday of said month with Megan at Chick-Fil-A we felt that it was only necessary to go again in January (2012) and from then on it just stuck with us and became our "thing". Every first Friday of 2012 we went to Chick-Fil-A together and it became even more sacred after we found out that my family was moving to Oklahoma. On the first Friday of January 2013, it was like there had been a death in our familyfriendshipthing because we kind of danced around the subject and didn't text that day at all. My mom took me to Chick-Fil-A but it wasn't the same. After that I realized that something had to be done to keep the first Friday of every month from feeling so empty...so I did. I texted her sometime during the month and decided to set up a FaceTime/Chick-Fil-A best-friend date for the first Friday of February. From then on, on the first Friday of every month (give or take a couple of days...depending on our schedules) we FaceTime and eat Chick-Fil-A together for an average of 4 hours. It's the perfect way to eat together, share what's going on in our lives, and laugh at the ridiculousness of our friendship that continues to grow stronger despite the 1,241 miles separating us.

So...

Thank you Ms. Richards,
Thank you S. Truett Cathy (founder of Chick-Fil-A),
Thank you Steve Jobs (Apple...MacBook...FaceTime),
Thank you Barnard family (for sharing your daughter every first Friday and for talking with me too!),
Thank you family for allowing me to disappear into my room for hours on the first Friday of every month to each my Chick-Fil-A and talk with my awesome friend all evening long.

Love,
     emma

P.S. Thank you Anne Arundel school system for closing schools in Severna Park today due to snow so that we could have First Friday this afternoon for lunch and talk for 5 hours, celebrating Christmas, New Years, and our friendship (filling each other in on our Winter Breaks) all afternoon long.

Happy First Friday of 2014!!!