shes keepin it real. im really into blogging about people i love these days.

her parents are hippies. her mom dated prefontaine. i met her at the age of 14, when i was still wearing pleather pants and chasing the cool. she was something real in a sea of high school. sometimes your soul tells you where to go even when your mind isn't grown up enough to know why you're being led somewhere. we were different. i loved makeup. she loved soccer. i loved kevin jones. she loved jack kerouac. from the outside, it looked like a mismatch. but my soul conquered, and we became friends. birds of a feather flock together, even when one of the birds is dressed in pleather. im glad my soul is smarter than i am.

we liked music. we liked books. we liked hating on high school. we liked hanging out with our friends that had graduated and were so college hip. we liked sitting in her station wagon and discussing our mature 16 year old perspectives on life and teenage social classes. shes probably the only real friend i had in high school. real as in she actually cared, real as in she let the bluebird out of her heart once in a while even at the risk of social rejection and bluebird bruising by 17 year olds trying to win battle for biggest biotch. i was buried in coolness and insecurities and unsureties, but she dug deep and she found me. she was probably the first person beyond my family that really dug into me like that, that stuck her shovel in and said lets find something real even though you've covered yourself in black eyeliner. she taught me how to listen to the bluebird in my heart. she appreciated my bluebird. she told me "damnit, let your bluebird sing! He has such a lovely voice!" she is just one of those people. she is real. she can't not be.

i got a boyfriend. we drifted apart. i still hate that situation even though we reconciled over aim (a reunion of wnderchic and irbysan). we love each other again. we dont talk that often these days, but ill never forget. you dont forget stuff like that, becuase it is filed away in your soul's permanent files, with a sticky note that says "this person changed me forever," and a reminder on your to do list--"thank so and so for helping to create me."

well its time for some spring cleaning cause my soul is tired of piles of untouched to do lists. thank you meredith irby for helping to create me--thank you for seeing beyond the pleather. you are a hippie among men, a bluebird among sparrows, a reality in a world of high schoolers chasin the cool, and ill never forget that you helped me learn how to sing.