Woman We Fangirl Over Wednesday!
This week’s Woman We Fangirl Over is Crystal!
I, Krissy, met Crystal in August 2002 when I started college. We instantly became best friends, even tho sometimes it was kinda tough. I was kinda mean, and I had never met anyone as sensitive as 16 year old Crystal. We’ve been best friends for almost 15 years now and will be celebrating our Friendship Quinceañera later next month. She is what I consider to be my Hetero Life Partner. We’ve had our share of ups and downs, and lord knows I’ve put her through a lot. She’s one of my best friends and will continue to be for the rest of my life.
Caitlin met Crystal in 2008 when Crystal was living in Fort Worth and came to visit me here in Houston. They, however, were not instant best friends. They competed a little bit over who was my best friend. Since then they have become best friends outside of me. Of course, they both must like me better than the other one tho. And now we are the three best friends that anyone could have.
Here are a few tidbits that we love about Crystal:
She is the knower of all things books and can recommend books to you based on your personality and things that you like. You will love every book she recommends to you.
She loves to cook. And is good at it too. She’s always cooking for us and more importantly catering to our likes and dislikes when it comes to food. And Krissy is a super picky eater.
She’s super crafty. She’ll make the best decorations for your birthday party/wedding shower/baby shower.
She loves gift giving and gives the best gifts. She plans that shit out and it’s always super well thought out and, of course, you’ll love it.
She’s one of our very best friends and we love her until the end of time.
Even tho she thinks we are crazy most of the time, she will let us fangirl for hours about our adventures and will be genuinely interested in what we have to say (even if she’s heard it already…about 5 times…from each of us).
Anyways…enough gushing over Crystal. Here are our questions:
1.) What do you fangirl over?
Books, coffee coffee coffee!, music...did I mention books?
It's an interesting question to think about because the answer now is different than it was 5 or 10 years ago. I've always had this deep love and appreciation for books and music, but for a long time, I fangirled over music more than anything. Listening to a great song on repeat endlessly, going to every concert I could afford...music was my favorite thing. Now that I'm older and I'm lucky enough to spend my days surrounded by books (and get paid for it), books have become the top thing I fangirl over. I have spent hours telling others (and my poor husband) the entire plot to countless books that they've never heard of and usually care nothing about. I talk constantly about books I've read, loved, hated, and books I haven't read, but really want to. It is not an exaggeration to say books are the biggest, most important objects in my life. And also coffee. I definitely fangirl over coffee at 6 am when I'm sleep deprived and have a long commute to work.
2.) What do you love about you?
I love that I've come to a point where I'm so comfortable with being myself. I love that I'm proud of who I am and I'm not ashamed or afraid to be that person (most of the time. Everyone has a bad day).
3.) What's your favorite thing about Texas?
Texas is home. No matter where I go, or where I imagine I want to travel to or possibly live, I always find myself back here with my amazing friends and family.
4.) What are you passionate about?
You had to know that the answer to this was going to be books. After all, I am a librarian (and I gave away this answer with the first question). I can't get over how much I love to read. I love to be entertained, to think, to feel, to get lost in these amazing worlds with characters who are complex and three dimensional. A good book does all of these things. A great book buries itself in your heart and your mind and you find yourself re-reading it again for the 10th, 12th, or 20th time regardless of the fact that your to-do read list has almost 500 books in it. I'm always looking for my next great book.
My passion for books has become such a force of nature and has evolved so far past my own love and enjoyment of reading. I find myself more and more becoming an advocate not just for literacy but for helping people find their own great book(s) that change their lives. As a young adult librarian and formally a children's library assistant, I have had extraordinary opportunities to share my passion for the written word with so many teens and children. It's such a rewarding and humbling experience to see a child or a teen find their own passion for reading. I get to see them fangirl (or boy) over books and I can't describe how amazing this is.
5.) Who's your favorite female artist?
I love Michelle Branch. She has been my favorite female musician since I was in high school. Her songs have this magical quality to them. She doesn't just write a standard break up or love song. She layers her story and emotions in these beautiful words that feel so genuine and relatable.
6.) What's the best thing about being a woman?
I consider the best thing about being a woman to also be one of the worse: being underestimated just because you're a female. It's complete bullshit that it's 2017 and there are still so many equality issues plaguing us, but there is one plus side to being underestimated and that's having the ability to surprise people and the opportunity to teach them something. As a woman, I love having the opportunity to show someone how smart and capable and resourceful women can be... Which is just as smart and capable and resourceful as our male counterparts.
7.) Tell us a music moment that means something to you. (This can be a song, lyric, concert moment, anything.)
The music moment that means the most to me is very personal and comes from one of the worst events in my life, so bear with me. My stepdad Darrell committed suicide in April 2012. It goes without saying that my family and I were shocked and devastated. Recovering from this, or more accurately, learning how to manage a grief that never really goes away, tested all of us. I found solace in music. One of the songs that I found myself listening to over and over again was Marching On by OneRepublic. There was something about this song, about the message it carried that brought me such comfort. I'm not exactly sure when, but at some point after this, I went to a OneRepublic concert with Krissy. They played Marching On and I remember standing next to Krissy with my eyes closed and feeling the music vibrate in my chest with tears streaming down my face. This felt like one of the first moments that I could grieve in my own way that was just about my sadness and hurt and anger. It remains one of the most memorable moments of my life.
Good books, good music, and good people.
9.) Tell us about a female you fangirl over.
Emma Watson, hands down. There are so many things to fangirl over when it comes to this actress. She's a Goodwill ambassador for the UN, an advocate for gender equality, a book lover... Also, she played Belle in the live action Beauty and the Beast and let's be honest, Belle is the best Disney Princess.
10.) Tell us a random fact about you.
I'm a hardcore daydreamer and spend a lot of time coming up with random, ridiculous stories in my head.
We hope you’ve loved reading about Crystal as much as we did. Trust us when we say that if you knew her, you’d be fangirling over her too.
dededos
turnnoffyourmind
discoholicmusic
gummygunk