Happy Birthday to YOU Rachel Doyle!

It is the day of my best friend's birth and firstly, I would like to personally thank her parents for coming up with such a great invention.  Rachel and I have been friends for 11 years now (how I wish I had met her sooner) and have maintained our friendship through 2 moves, 6 time zones, the addition of 1 husband (mine - she was married when we met), some major life hiccups and 2 babies (one each).  Through thick and thin, I do believe what has kept us so close is the fact that:

1.  We have respect for each others differences
2.  We both love cheese so much it hurts
3.  We don't take ourselves (or each other) too seriously most of the time
4.  We both have a disturbingly similar sense of humor (we like watching people fall down)

We both met at a time in our lives when (for many) the BFF in your life has already been a BFF for about 10 years.  I don't know about you, but the older I get, the harder I find it to make great friends.  Don't get me wrong - I have met plenty of lovely people as an adult - many of them good friends whom I adore and hang out with regularly.  I am not talking about those types of friends.

I am talking about the kind of BFF who can hold your hair back while you are puking tequila out of your nose because you are laughing so hard at the chick who just slipped in her 4 inch platforms on a wooden bar floor and is now sprawled out with her thong showing, screaming at her boyfriend to pick her up.

The kind of BFF that you can call at 4 am (even though you know she would really prefer it if you didn't) to tell her that you are angry that she moved to Texas and why won't she just come back so you have somebody to do stuff with.

The kind of BFF that forces encourages you to re-take up ballet at the age of 28, because she too remembers how great it felt to be a ballerina and needs a partner in crime.

The kind of BFF that will sit in the back of a convertible (top down), while it is pouring rain and allow you to pull over (not to put the top up) but to snap a picture of her soaking wet.

The kind of BFF who can convince you to tart it up to THE MAX in Vegas, comandeer a sequined saddle on the empty stage in the entry lounge bar of the Stratosphere and (politely) ask a group of Japanese business men to snap some pics (then offer autographs).

The kind of BFF that will let you dress up in her evening gowns and every piece of jewelry she owns while she dons her wedding veil to play some crazy Texas Hold'em with the girls.

You know the kind of friend I am talking about?  If you don't have a friend like this, I highly suggest that you find one, you can't have Rachel, she's my BFF and I don't share well.  She is a southern bundle of hospitality, charm and wit and makes the best damned cheese-based dishes I have ever had the pleasure to stuff myself with.

I wish, more than anything that I could spend her birthday with her - unfortunately due to work/child commitments I am stuck here in England.  This blog will have to do (and the Lush stuff being sent her way)!

Happy Birthday to YOU Rachel!  I love you more than I love to watch people trip and hurt themselves!

Smooches........Kittyn