i have a friend named julie

Julie isn't a thing, she's a person, but I figure she's good for the blog since I have her. For a friend, anyway. She got me a really cool watch for Christmas that I've eyed for literally two years, so I guess that counts for the money spending.

But anyway. My friend Julie. She is frequently mentioned on this and my other blog, typically as the Julie with the clothes blog. That's because she has a blog about clothes, but she also writes really well on her normal blog-- because she writes really well. Once she wanted to be an English teacher and she was pursuing an English degree, but Julie suffers from the same problem I had in school, in that we are smart, we like to be smart, if we actually tried to be good students we could, graduate school would be no problem, but we like to sit around Denny's until 2am too often, to the detriment of our homework. In this case, specifically to the detriment of Julie's homework. So she's not an English major anymore, but she still writes really well. Like, really well.

Along those lines, it has been suggested that she write a book about her life published under a pseudonym, which I happen to think would be highly successful and a very lucrative option, but I'll leave that up to her.

This is a shirt-tunic thing that Julie has, and I have it too, so I think that counts for the blog. Actually, her little sister Jenny has it, but I've never seen Jenny wear it-- only Julie. We call it "Ragu" because one time she wore it and looked like the older sister on My Big Fat Greek Wedding, even though that lady is Greek and I'm pretty sure the word "ragu" is Italian. In fact, I know it's Italian. It's fine. We know what we mean.

In fact, it happens a lot that we just kind of talk (a lot, really. We really like to talk. I mean, we talk a lot a lot a lot, which I'm sure you'd never be able to tell since I don't ever say much on this or any blog and neither does she) in a manner so that we know what we mean, but a lot of people don't know what we mean. Like we'll say things like, "He doesn't like me, he likes me." Which, I mean, makes perfect sense.

Julie and I had a New Year's party last year, and we're having it again this year, but my point is that it was really a Big Moment in our lives. Something changed that night, and it kind of opened the door to a doozy of a year for her-- let's just be honest about it. She is. After our Grown Up party (that people came to), we suddenly found the circus of life had turned into something Normal. Then we started dating these boys, and then we both got engaged within a week of each other, and then we were going to get married a week apart. This was exciting. Long story made short, however, not all came to pass, and unfortunately, Julie (and her ex-fiance, for that matter) suffered a dis-engagement, which was pretty sad and horrible. But you know, I really think she's come out on top from the whole thing. I don't mean that she's better off than before she was engaged, and I'm not at all mud-slinging ex-fiance (who is one of my longest-time friends). All I mean is that life tossed her a few hundred lemons, and she's still squeezing the last drops of juice from them all. That lemonade sure tastes delicious!!

We met a few years ago during A Christmas Carol at HCTO when we were both in the choir. It was the last of the Great Choirs for the show, if you ask me, us with our dresses, and Robbie and Sarah, and Adam and Eric and that's when we met Jim, too. She grew up seeing every HCTO show ever and then was in it and it was a dream come true. We've been in together four years and then this year, suddenly-- we were over it. In a good, nostalgic, we'll always say we want to go back to it even if we never do kind of way. In the meantime, she auditioned for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels a few weeks ago, nailed the audish, and is going to be single cast in the show opening in February. This is because she can Sing. Not just sing, but Sing. Also she plays the piano. Not so much of a dancer, but at least she's a mover, and that will do just fine, particularly all gussied up in a French maid costume for the show.

Julie likes books, journals, clothes (duh), old movies like White Christmas, modge podging, hunting Savers and DI (she may have sold her soul to the thrifting gods-- I'm really not sure she hasn't), taking pictures of herself and others twirling around, McDonald's, Thai food, mixing up all the remnants of food and condiments during 4-hour trips to Denny's, looking at pretty things in Target, sitting in the Target food court with me, texting, tweeting (@julieannaface), A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and her baby cousins. Children of all ages are drawn to her in kind of a freaky, have-a-baby-soon way. She is very nice. She likes my husband. Her birthday is on Valentine's day. She makes friends with every single person who ever lived and lives to make people happy.

Merry Christmas, Julie, and cheers to the end of a Very Long Year. Clink.

All photos courtesy of Julie's very own facebook page, which I stalk, but not enough to be one of her Top Five Stalkers.