30 Days of Turning 30: Day 25

A few blogs ago I mentioned an awful ex-boyfriend. What I forgot to mention that he was also the driving force in what made me decide to get a shore house with a group of girls for the very first time when I was twenty-four. We had broken up but worked in the same office building (for different companies) so I had been relegated to having to see him every day of the week except Saturday and Sunday. And it was so awful, half the time I felt like I wanted to crawl out of my skin. My modus operandi has always been to figure out a way to turn a bad situation to my advantage and this was no different. Summer was fast approaching and I needed a distraction. Right out of college I had attempted to gather a group of girls to rent a beachhouse for the summer, but it just wouldn't come together and I had given up. No one wanted to lay out money, even though everyone thought it was a good idea; no one was willing to drive down in the winter to look at places with a realtor. It was always something and I realized it was a pretty hopeless endeavor. Until it occurred to me that instead of trying to get a group of flaky non-committal girls to get a house, I could just look for a group of girls who already had one and needed an extra person. Boom. Problem solved. And that's how I met Cher, Becky, Kerri, Jen, Kristi and eventually JG. And that's also how I ended up having the two best summers of my life. They saved me that first summer. I had totally lost my joie de vivre and by Labor Day that year, I not only had it back, but I felt like an entirely different person. Capable of doing anything. Jen and I bonded that first summer, and I remember that on the day I met her, I already felt as if I had known her a long time. And if I had to describe our relationship to anyone, I'd say it's as if she is the sister I never had and if you can have a friendship soulmate, she would be mine. She and her husband came to visit today and it is a little weird to be down at the beach without her as a rommate or housemate! After dinner we talked about how I had not yet done something for Day 25 and she asked me if I had ever driven a Mini Cooper which is what her husband drives. I had not. So off we went on a little joyride down Ocean Avenue in the Mini Cooper, nicknamed Sir Speedy. It was a fun, peppy little car, but the best part was reminiscing about the summers our whole group of girls use to have together down here and all the shenanigans that occurred. I wouldn't trade those stories for anything. And I think it's hilarious that no matter how many times we all get together and re-tell them, we still laugh so hard we cry. Day 25 was a great day :-)