Addy's Friend of the Day: Kelly

Disclaimer (again): No permission was granted by the "Friend of the Day" to use their image or personal information for the entertainment of the occasional visitors of this blog. The owner of this blog pinkie swears that no "truly personal" information will be shared out of respect for those individuals discussed and out of fear that I will become their next target.

Kelly, Kelly, where do I begin? Well let's take a quantum leap back to the year 1989 shall we. My mom, my brothers and I had just moved in with my moms boyfriend, Dan (and not the Dan that responds to this blog either) and I had absolutely no friends. One day I met a little girl about five years old and while she was a girl to play with, she was still five, so that wasn't very much fun. I got to know the little girl, named Jackie, and her grandma whom Jackie was always there to visit, when Jackie's g-ma told me that she had ANOTHER granddaughter my age named Kelly. I was ecstatic!
So Kelly and I have been friends ever since. The End. Thanks for visiting! Yeah right, this friendship story has more twists and turns than the cast of 90210 merged with Melrose Place, wrapped in a Days of Our Lives blanket, with an X Files undertone and Boogie Nights highlights!

Kelly and me on my day of submission...the Dredding Day, I mean Wedding Day. :) Oddly enough, Kelly is a blonde, and has been most of her life, but for my wedding she decided to go brunette, and it worked for her!

To summarize much of our friendship as children, we did what most girls did. Hung out together, talked about boys, kissed the same boys (Ruben), wore really bad clothes,
(Kelly was in this "Troll Doll" phase. Does any one remember those nasty little things? Naked, fat, with crazy ass Don King like neon hair, and a lucky gem embedded in their tubby gut) Kelly wore these Troll Doll shirts ALL the time that said "AWESOME" or "2 Bodacious 4 U" or some shit. *just a side note...I am laughing so hard right now Kelly, my keyboard is wet with tears
We had really bad hair styles, man - the heights my hair reached! You know, your typical preteen stuff in the late 80's early 90's.
We looked ridiculous but thought we were the cats ass!

Though we had a typical friendship that kept us together, Kelly and I went through, saw, and first handedly experienced things that no child should ever have to go through or see.
Like I vowed in my disclaimer, I will not discuss any trulely personal info about my friend of the day because I respect their privacy, but speaking for myself, I can say that growing up in an abusive, alcoholic home, or household I should say because the word HOME means so much more to me now, but being in a household under those living conditions- is no way to live.
Kelly was one of the main reasons I ever got through it.

Once we became teenagers, the flood gates were opened and out we came like roaring thunder. Now, neither one of us ever got into drugs or alcohol, I mean a sip here or there but it seems that children really do sometimes learn from their parents mistakes, and know not to make them for themselves. Though other mistakes I'm sure my mom never made was getting into a car with complete strangers, Kelly and I did that pretty often. Hey! It was a long ass walk from our house to Southgate's movie theater! -Especially in the heat of summer, so when some weird little mexican guys rolled up saying they were going to the mall too, we just tagged along for the ride! Looking back on it now...probably not such a good idea! Amazingly nothing ever happened to us.

High School didn't work out so well for me, at least once I transferred to Milwaukee Tech. If it wasn't for me playing volleyball for school, and my boyfriend Chad, I would've stopped going long before.
For all of you Vikings fans out there, I went to school with Mike Bennett (however it's spelled) and I'm thinking of starting up a blog just for people that hate him, so if anyone is interested, let me know!
Anyway, highschool sucked, so most of my days were spent on a bus going to and from Kelly's many places of living. So the days that Kelly was actually in school, I hung out at her house...with her mom...cleaning - or watching HBO. Pretty sad, I know. But then, Kelly and I would spend HOURS getting ready on Wednesday nights, (yes I'm going to say it Kelly) to go to JackJammers! WOOHOO! WOOP! WOOP! They had an underage night at that dance club, that we would somehow manage to stay for once they started serving alcohol after 11pm.
Good Times. Afterwards, we would routinely visit Pick N Save and purchase Strawberry Milk and Cheesecurds to tide us over while we had that LONG LONG wait for the bus back to the hood, that was, only if we didn't get a ride home from someone!

Like most personalities that spend entirely too much time together, we had our falling outs and times we didn't speak to each other for a while, but like a boomerang you'd purchase at seven mile fair expecting it not to come back, it does. Somehow, we mended our relationship, and moved forward.

We've been together through a lot as I've mentioned. I even took Kelly to Prom with me
(Chad wasn't so happy but oh well) And growing up on the south side of Milwaukee, we were even jumped. Correction. I was punched in the face, Kelly was unscaved. I still believe that chick broke my nose, I've got the lovely bump to prove it, of course I've taken a couple hits in the mush since then- from playing volleyball with men.
Anyway, we've both survived crazy, crazy boyfriends, all of whom Kelly hated
(not that hers were spectacular either) but I thinkKelly was FINALLY ok with this last one- that I ended up marrying...I do remember a warning from Kelly though.
We've also been through loosing pets together, definitely tougher than loosing the boyfriends. Actually my one dog, Sassy, is a product of my friendship with Kelly.
My dad and I were dogsitting for Buffy, Kelly's mom's dog, while Kelly's mom was, uh, well lets just say gone.
I remember asking Kelly "Is Buffy pregnant?" "Nooo" Kelly replied. Couple weeks later, we have puppies in our bathroom!
Well, Sassy won my heart and has been with me ever since. Actually her birthday is coming up, October 16th (1996).
Kelly was there for me while I was getting married, and when had my son, and then 16 months later when I had my daughter!!! I'm having labor pains just thinking about it!
And when I lost my mom just a little over a year ago, Kelly was really the only one that I think truly understood what I was going through. Due to the fact that she was there with me when I was a scared little girl when my mom and Dan (my step dad) wouldn't come home from the bar, and I was all alone, though it actually got worse when they finally did come home.
Kelly had lived through all of those terrifying moments with me, but she also understood that I still loved my mom despite her disease.

I could go on and on about our friendship, but I'd lose all other creative juices to focus on my new Friend of the Day!

As the saying goes, you're lucky if you have one or two true friends throughout your life, and strange as she may be, Kelly has always been my friend.
Now I'm just waiting for her to catch up on the milestones of life (getting punched in the nose, getting hitched, having little Kellys) so I can laugh at her like she laughs at me!

Want to know more about Kelly, or tell Aaron what a great girl he has,
blog on to http://sub2change.blogspot.com

And visit back later to see who my Friend of the Day will be today!