You know when you meet the greatest friend ever?
Well...I don't really know how to start this post...but...Natalie, this one's for you!
Coolest thing ever? Mine and Natalie's friendiversary happens to be the same as New Year's Eve, because we're awesome like that and NYE a year ago just so happens to be when we started talking the most. We'd talked once or twice before that, but our friendship was really born out of a hug and the conversation that followed ended up as the best conversation EVER! I still have all the messages sent my way :)
(Putting the rest of my message below a read more, because I have far too much to say to you Nat!)
Within that first week we established two things we would never stop doing, and we have kept true to our word; hugging & fangirling over Becker and Jess. If I remember correctly, we do both every night we talk ^_^
We braved the attack of the Tumblrsaurus and talked for weeks on end, mostly about Primeval, the cast and not shocking at all; Ben Mansfield in particular. And let me tell you something; you and your blog were the best welcome I ever got into that man's world! I'm not sure I would love him nearly as much as I do now if it weren't for you and our crazy all night chats about the man. Then again, if we didn't have these crazy chats, I wouldn't have such a problem with the word "butter". But I suppose sacrifices must be made in the name of friendship! And if it's Becker's mouth the word "butter" is coming from, there really is no real problem here xD
Remember the days when Ben didn't have a twitter and all we wanted was for Ben to have a freakin' twitter? I think you and I both now regret that wish, because now we have to deal with sexy lunches and cheeky monkeys. We thought we were prepared a year ago, but I don't think we were ready for this at all. ALL WE WANTED WAS FOR HIM TO TWEET ABOUT SANDWICHES, REMEMBER???
And remember when we were either gonna A) drain the Atlantic or B) paddle our respective states to England and become a part of them? Just so we could see One Man Two Guvnors? Hard to believe Hannah's run ended and Ben's is now coming to an end. It's like OMTG is just a few months younger than our friendship!!!
And here's a memory that still makes me all teary eyed...remember when you told me "My AJ is perfect." I'll never forget. Because your AJ is the real AJ, unafraid to be herself. And your AJ is more than happy to be so loved and accepted as she is by her Natalie. I'll always carry those words with me, to remind myself that I am perfect the way I am. I can never thank you enough for those simple words, and the beautiful message that accompanied them.
Oh wow...here's another crazy memory to think about...just as OMTG is only a few months younger than our friendship...so is my letter to Ben. The letter you convinced me to send to him and made me so excited about. A year of dying and flailing over it, Ben finally has it and I have his. We fangirled over that letter for months together and you kept my hope up that he would get it one day and he'd write a beautiful mesage back - well, look who was always right! :') And remember when I was going to request he add the word "butter" to the reply...we never did get over that butter thing lmao
And remember when tumblr was being it's obnoxious self again and we had to move our chats to facebook? But that turned out to be the best arrangement ever despite our initial hesitation? And thanks to FB's chatting system we were able to hold a movie date and laugh about how ridiculous the movie was and ship people with the wrong people the entire time? That was amazing! And we should do it again some time!
Thanks to FB a lot of our other inside jokes were born too. Like the mustache cat who somehow ended up being forever referred to as the mustard cat :3 and during our late night chats the apricot/asparagus ship was born and we also decided we lived in a cabin in the woods with a strawberry field and we owned an ice cream shop and we drove a creepy white van and forever lurked. We also learned we could mind read and were Time Ladies! Basically? Best late night chats EVER!!! Nobody will ever understand, nor will they ever understand our desire to own all the Colgate in England, but that's exactly how I like it.
And remember when we named and became the captains of Ben Mansfield fans? Mansfield Coordinators for life!!! Nobody can ever take that away from us, we made that and maybe one day it'll catch on, but we'll still be the captains - promise :)
Basically, I just want you to know that I don't care how frequent our chats are - so long as you're not over working yourself over there, because I swear to God I will come over there and slap you silly if I hear you've done it again! All I care about is the memories and the inside jokes like these and making more of them. You really are the greatest friend I've ever had and I don't know where I'd be without you, so don't you dare ever think for a second that you're a horrible friend. I tell you every time you say it that you're not, don't I? And I damn well mean it!
In conclusion...AJatalie is for life, so let's remember to thank our lord Ben Mansfield for getting us together last year, and let's continue to never stop hugging!!! And let's also agree to another year of crazy late night chats sprinkled with Mansfeels, heartfelt moments and attempts to share milkshakes through the screen, because that's exactly how I want to spend my 2013 with you <3