Stories of Friendship – Xiomara

So I was talking to my best friend about the website (yes, she’s still stressed and eating not getting help. Although she told me she tried Nutrisystem to work on the weight.) and she said I can talk about her as long as I say she’s pretty (yup, she is) and change her name to something exotic. We agreed on Xiomara.

I already mentioned how we met in college during Badminton class. I remember when I really began to feel our friendship bloom. After finally getting a CD player, I purchased a John Lennon CD. It had the song ‘Mother’ on it. We both started to cry when it came on, and it opened up for us to talk about our families in a more honest light. No one’s family is perfect. I think she mentioned sleeping on wooden planks (softer than the floor).

The lyrics to ‘Mother’, for those who don’t know:

Mother, you left me
But I didn’t leave you
I-i-I, I needed you, but you didn’t need me
So-o I just want to tell you, goodbye

We were both children deprived and ended up making up for it in college. Beanie Babies were big then and she and I used to buy way too many of them. Sometimes we sold them on Ebay, more often than not we kept them. Our senior year we were roommates and fed into each other’s bid to reclaim childhood. We played hooky from classes one day to go down to the Manhattan Mall and buy games such as Operation and I think CandyLand and sat down in our dorm and played them.

But, such extravagances add up quickly so, for Christmas that year, we each went out and realized we had bought stuff mostly for ourselves. So what did we do? We handed it to the other person who wrapped it and gave it back as our holiday gifts.

That year I think we were off our rockers. She was a huge Yankees fans and every year NYC was having a parade in their honor. So for some reason we got it in our heads to create a picture book comparing each of the Yankees to a cartoon character (such as Scott Brosius as Droopy Dawg and Derek Jeter as a limp carrot, we never much cared for him). After we got the book finished, we had to find a Kinkos to Xerox it so we’d each have a copy. So we went all over ‘the city that never sleeps’ and found out it does take a lot of naps. At around 3 a.m. we finally found a Kinkos and by then, we realized there wasn’t a need to go home if the parade was going to start around 8 am or so, no?

So by 4:30a.m. we were down at the parade route and watching all the floats be put together. The place was quiet, and dark. Well, quiet being relative for New York City streets. There were reporters running all over the place and security, but the general populace was still preparing for the day. As we were the first ‘fans’ there the reporters had a field day interviewing us. I don’t think we were in any way coherent after being up all night. Then, as the sun came over the horizon, the newspaper vendors came out. For those that don’t know, they give out the papers on parade day complete with posters of the team. At least, most do. Those that charge only charge around a quarter or so. So we went around the parade area collecting all the papers we could and other memorabilia. By then more people were starting to come and crowd up the streets. We entered a Modell’s just when it opened, bought some Yankees shirts, looked at the people congregating on the sidewalks, and left.

Back on campus we were now over 24 hours without sleep and had to go to class. We debated skipping it, but both were mostly conscientious students. I had an early morning film class that I went too – and started to fall asleep during. Then I got nauseous (lack of sleep really messes with my stomach) so after 45 minutes in that three-hour class, I went back to my room and found – Xiomara asleep. But then she got up and went to class.

We were both falling asleep in various classes all day. But it was fun. I highly recommend going to a parade before everyone gets there just to watch it being set-up. I think it was much more entertaining than the actual parade would have been.