Minun armas kaveri, minun sisar, minun sielu apulainen

Many moons ago, I was supposed to be a foreign exchange student living in Finland.  As my departure date neared, I grew increasingly scared apprehensive, and eventually canceled the move. My parents were moving out of state, and I didn’t want to return from a foreign country to a new and unfamiliar place.  Instead, I stayed in the US and I left the only home I’d ever known just before my senior year of high school.

Most ironically, in my new town, my immediate best friend was a foreign exchange student from Finland.

One way or another, the country and I were destined to intersect.

Nella.  With two L’s, and you pronounce them both.  In the US, we rarely do that.  In Finland, it’s a pretty big deal.  Nel-la.  She was impressed that I did that correctly.

We were thrown together most serendipitously.  Riikonen and Roberts.  The alphabet was on our side.

Well, that and combat boots.  We both had an affinity for combat boots, which in rural Kentucky is not a common thing.  On the first day of school I’m pretty sure we were both wearing teeny-tiny daisy duke cutoffs with black tights and combat boots, and that pretty much much sealed up our fate.  How could I not love her?

She’s very loveable.

I’ve never laughed so hard in my life as I do with Nella.  For hours, endlessly, so that at the end of it all we have no idea when or why it began in the first place.

She’s the only other person I’ve ever met who likes the smell of skunk.  And to this day, I never catch a whiff of skunk without breathing deeply and thinking of Nella…and coffee.

Plus she needed a translator, because in spite of her perfect English, I’m the only one who can read her handwriting.  Seriously – the only one.  I’ll totally challenge you.

I let her birthday pass without mention this year, because I am the lousy sort of friend who always forgets things like this.  Not the date – I couldn’t ever forget the date.  10/2.  Which is only 10/2 in the US.  Everywhere else it’s written 2/10, which meant according to her ID card it looked like she turned 18 in February.  This was incredibly fortunate for her, because it meant she was able to have her navel pierced at the local tattoo parlor when really she was only 17.  See, at 17 you need parental consent, which my parents would never give.  So I was forced to take matters into my own hands, quite literally.  And lucky for me, Nella is the kind of BFF that would help a girl pierce her own belly button in the guest bedroom of her grandparents’ house over spring break.  Holla!

[Side note: Don't try this at home kids.  The pain is worse than childbirth and I am not even kidding about that.  Also it's likely to rip out a year later, which really totally sucks.  And also hurts.  And then getting it re-done through scar tissue is not pleasant either.]

Part of Nella’s fabulousness is her willingness to overlook my own, um, lack of fabulousness.  She’s the Ying to my Yang.  She sends long letters with thoughtful pictures, and I can’t even seem to upload them from the camera to the computer.  She remembers my birthday far enough in advance to send a postcard halfway around the world, whereas I remember hers at about midnight the night beforehand.  And inexplicably, she seems to love me in spite of my glaring lack of regular communication.

Many years and many pounds ago, when I was too thin to be allowed to donate blood and my chest was a far more manageable size.  Ah, the good old days.

She is a best friend, a sister, a soulmate…she is everything I ever could have wanted from Finland. And more.

And I am so, so grateful to have her in my life – even at 4600 miles away.

Happy [belated] Birthday, my dear, dear friend.

I love you.

What I learned this week

Jo-Lynne at Musings of a Housewife has a great carnival going on. I have enjoyed reading others’ posts, but apparently I have been blissfully ignorant because last week I’d learned nothing worth sharing. This week, though…this week I have a few tidbits for ya.

1 – Skunks are not afraid of Shih Tzu. Or things thrown at them. Or hysterically shrieking women. Skunks are actually quite brave, and thank the good Lord above they do not spray as freely as one might think.

2 – You need an emergency kit in your house. I know you know this, just like I know this. But knowing and doing are two very different things, aren’t they? Just because you already own a flashlight and candles and extra batteries and non-perishable food doesn’t mean they are all readily accessible when you’re suddenly in the dark. And having peanut butter as you backup dinner plan is less than desirable these days.

After losing power again, I am finally committed to making an actual Rubbermaid tub full of goodies. Two weeks ago we were in the dark and the COLD because of ice storms, and tonight we are in the dark because of windstorms. At least it’s warmer now.

3 – Q & U are married, and they are always together. However. Mr. Q needs Mrs. U, but Mrs. U does not need Mr. Q. So says Annie, who earned this handy dandy chock-full-of-interesting-subtext letter lesson in school this week. I’ll never view ‘unicorn’ in the same light again.

So there you have it, a few of the valuable life lessons I’ve learned this week. Be sure to pop over to Musings of a Housewife to get links to all the other bloggy participants. You know you need to absorb their knowledge too, right?