Jennifro

Dear Anjanette

A few weeks ago as a lay awake in your basement room, I grinned to myself as I stared at the dark ceiling pondering one random thought: How many times have we dwelt under the same roof? Silly as it sounds it brought a feeling of love to my heart as I reminisced...

Were it not for the friendship braid bread brought to The Brittany, this Vegas Chick would never have left her comfort zone and joined you under the Beasley Roof. I think of that sweet gesture as the defining moment for where we are today. You brought bread, a friendship was born and we lived bed by bed the next semester. It was there you threatened me with the GREAT CHASE (damn you) complained of my squiggly hairs in the tub and left a few pellets of your own behind (no pun intended). Though the laughs came faster and more furious in those days, you were a kindred spirit then--as you are now.

Not so long after, I needed you for backup in my "lets go see if I still like this East coast boy" adventure where together we slept in the damp basement of 15209. There we experienced our own "coming of age" of sorts as we learned a whole new set of rules, coined names and phrases that are still ringing in our ears today, "The Chief! or "Vergilio you're breakin' my heart! " That summer we seared some sweet memories into our psyches forever! Who can forget the barbell pelting Giraud's back, the infamous Neil Diamond exchange at the kitchen island, the braids in Bens greasy hair or Dutch's free flowing man parts. Who would've guessed that fifteen years later you would have your own gargantuan roof just up the path beyond Nellie!

The good Lord knew Maryland hadn't seen the last of Anjanette Coleman cause just a few years later, with Eric in your pocket, you lovingly joined your ex-roomies under the Nellie roof. What a day, what a day! It was like greeting my own ma and pa at the doorstep. MY PEOPLE had arrived. These are they who know my history, my humor, my lascivious past and yet, THEY ARE HERE. You will never fully know how comforting it was to have you move close. I will cherish those early days as some of my best. And think of the mice, their lives snuffed out, once Sider rocked the house!

Though I don't actually recall sleeping under the Newport roof, it was here we shared some of our best collective memories, me and you. The Newport School in Kensington where we showed them all how the Mormon girls put it down! Having you join me year two, was sunshine in the morning! I would feel a quick burst of comradery when I'd see you in the hall or one of us would pop a quick head in the other's classroom. Those were fun, fulfilling times...and something we will always have as our very own; I love that we share it.

And last but certainly not least, the low, low roof which was also my floor at 13904. It was here we took our first baby steps as mothers. You and Eric doted on Nicholas like he was your own, joined us for dinners and dangled the GREAT CHASE just close enough to keep the fear alive! You've always been a bit of a tormenter but I have laughed...and laughed again. I still chuckle to think of Coleman spazzing from the ice, or the inevitable "oooooooOOOOOOOO" as you trotted him down the dark basement stairs... me thinking he should be grateful you were alive, following a frightful yellow-faced labor.

So back to that basement bed... though it wasn't a permanent stay, it felt like home. "Friends are family you make for yourself." Couldn't be more true here.

Happy birthday my dear, old roommate..... "I Iove you dearly and queerly".

Jennifer 

(for Anjie on her 40th birthday)