Friends in Low Places

Do you believe in soul mates?  Some people do, some people don’t.  I do; and I believe in more than the kind you are probably thinking of.  Back in October of 2002 I met my “platonic soul mate”.  It was hate at first sight.  She was the "new girl" in our very small, close-knit office and she was abrasive and brutally honest and the first few days in the office she just sat there and stared at us all like a total creeper.  To this day she’ll claim she was told to watch everyone to learn the job flow.  Riiiight.   Luckily for me I learned to love her by that following February and now I can’t imagine my life without her.  Everything I hated about her is what I love most about her now.  She’s an idiot and makes me pee my pants laughing (clearly you are all aware that this isn’t a hard thing to accomplish) and she's my “same difference”.  Don’t worry, I’m not getting mushy on you…there’s a point to my story. 

Last year she convinced me to run my first race ever and we ran a 10k together.  I became addicted to races and a few months later we ran the Warrior Dash next.  Clearly it was awesome and we had to celebrate the only way we know how—BOOZE.  We had the complimentary beer they give you and a few more and then went home.  We quickly showered and headed to Jewel to get, yep you guessed it, more booze.  We grabbed a cart and proceeded to shop for celebratory items like 2 cases of beer, snacks, tabloid mags and Father’s Day cards.  Yes, you heard that right, it was the day before Father’s Day and I like to always be ahead of the game so I headed for the card aisle.  Nic’s ADD kicked in so she took the cart and left me in the card aisle saying she would be looking at magazines.  After ensuring all Hallmark employees would remain employed for the next year I went to find Nic.  For anyone who knows her you will not be shocked to learn that I could hear her before I found her.  However; when I got to the aisle with magazines I didn’t find her, just our cart, ALONE.  I followed the sound of the “machine gun”, which is the nickname she was given for her laugh, and was led to the liquor department.  Nic had found a friend and was drinking tequila with her.  As she saw me approaching she started yelling and waving, “COME HERE, I found a friend, WE’RE HAVING A PARTY!”  Yes, she found a liquor rep who was giving out free samples of tequila.  It was like we found the Chuck E. Cheese for adults!!!  We had free samples in the form of ALCOHOL, HALLELUJA, GOD BLESS AMERICA!  Needless to say we hung out with our new friend (Lindsey) for a bit.  She taught us that you can make a margarita with just the tequila and a little Mr. & Mrs. T’s Sweet and Sour mix.  We made her workday a little bit better that day.  But more than that we learned a powerful lesson that day—people say you can save money by eating free samples at Costco or Sam’s Club, but we learned you can tie one on by finding a liquor rep at your local grocery store.  And then we had to call for a ride home…whoops.