This is an interesting topic @lyxzen, @rambo & @missy. Thanks!
I've had quite a few best friends during my life. There's Joe and Robbie, who were my best friends in elementary school. Robbie lived next door and Joe lived down the street. Mark was my next door neighbor on the other side. I can't remember when he moved in, but I know we were best friends during junior high school (middle school) and during my first year or two of high school. Our interests changed and, though still friends, we were never as close after that. We've reconnected on Facebook in the past two years, which is a good thing. Dennis was my best friend during my senior year of high school and our first year of junior college. Then he enlisted in the USAF. We reconnected in Germany while I was stationed at Spangdahlem AB and he was assigned to Ramstein AB. Though we live on opposite sides of the country and rarely talk on the phone, we are still very good friends. I didn't have any best friends during my college years at Mississippi State University or for the few years after that when I lived in Fayette, Alabama.
Once I moved back to Southern California, Kevin was my best friend for a while. I didn't have any best friends during my enlistment in the United States Air Force. I met Allen while working at Bally Technologies. I don't think we were ever best friends, but we are very good friends and have a lot of similar interests: primarily music, guitars and good beer and alcohol.
But none of them are my real best friend. I met my best friend in 1987 at a mom and pop video rental store in Granada Hills, California (same place I met Kevin). She started working there about a week or two after I did. Stephanie didn't like me at first. Seriously! But I wouldn't take no for an answer. I suppose nowadays, that would get me in trouble. I wasn't pushy about it, but I was relentless nonetheless. There was something about her that intrigued and interested me. I don't know if I ever knew what it really was that piqued my interest. It might have been the way she dressed (very 80s) or her short blond spiked hair. Or that she often colored the tips of her hair different colors (the color I remember most vividly was blue). Maybe it was her beautiful almond-shaped green eyes. Maybe it was her magnificent smile. Or maybe it was that she didn't take shit from anyone.
Eventually I won her over and we became friends. We'd go out for a late meal after closing up the video store or go to a late movie. We went miniature golfing once or twice. One time we went, I shot first on one hole. It was a two tiered hole on a small hill. I walked down to the second green while she made her shot. In an effort to catch up, she took a short cut through the wet grass. She was in boots and WHOOSH! Her feet slid right out from under her and she landed smack dab on her ass. I laughed so hard I was doubled over the railing. She couldn't get up because, well, boots and wet grass. That made it even funnier. After my laughter subsided I helped her to her feet and we finished our game. She'd sometimes come over to my apartment and we'd talk or I'd play my guitar for her. We never thought of these outings as dates... Just two friends hanging out together, though looking back on it, I guess they were dates. It was a purely platonic relationship. She took me to the 93rd Aero Squadron near the Van Nuys Airport for my birthday one year. I didn't have any romantic feelings toward her, at least not yet. After dinner, she told me she had feelings for me. I let her down really easy. We remained friends and still hung out together.
In 1989, I enlisted in the United States Air Force. I wrote to her often and in August 1993, while on temporary assignment in northeastern Italy, I realized I missed her. A lot. And that she was deeply embedded in my heart.. I proposed to her in October 1993 at an Anaheim Mighty Ducks hockey game, though I wasn't able to get my proposal on the video board. She said yes and the next day we went to Disneyland with her sister and her best friend, Yo (Adrienne).
We had planned to get married on February 14, 1995. She'd stay in the US after the wedding finishing up her college degree and I'd finish up my tour in Germany and we'd meet up at my next duty station in the US in late September. Then the Northridge Earthquake happened and she wanted to leave California in the worst way. We were married on May 14, 1994. We spent our 2-day honeymoon in Big Bear, California and a couple of days after that we were on a plane for Germany where I was still stationed. Because she came with me, I had to extend my tour another year, which wasn't a bad thing. Germany was great. We spent out 1st anniversary in Paris, France. I don't think many Americans can say that.
We've been through good times and bad times and rough times. It's not been easy. I had to change a lot because I was so used to living by myself, doing whatever I wanted at the moment, like playing video games or guitars for hours, or taking off for a drive on a whim. I put her through a lot. It wasn't easy on her in the beginning either. Literally days after we got married, she moved halfway around the world with me, away from her parents, her sister, her friends to a foreign country where she knew no one, into a culture, military, that is completely different than "normal" life. I am amazed she stayed.
We don't have a lot of friends to hang out with here in Las Vegas. We have our bowling friends, but we don't do anything with them other than bowl. She and her sister, who lives about a mile from us, aren't talking, so we don't hang out with her and her husband anymore. We have our coffee friends who we see on Friday nights, sometimes on Sunday's for bowling fun and occasionally other days of the week, but one of those friends got on our nerves recently (she doesn't have much of a filter between her brain and mouth) so we haven't been hanging out with them for a couple of months. She goes out to dinner with one of our bowling friends every once in a while. I haven't hung out with my friends Ross and Allen in quite a while... Since before Allen had his stroke (I really need to reach out to him and see how he's doing. It's been far too long.) 2 years ago.
So it's usually just me and Stephanie. She is my best friend and soulmate. And I'm hers. We spend a lot of time together... Bowling, movies, shopping, dinner out (like earlier tonight), watching TV, talking and more. We have our own interests that allow us "me" time as well. She is a voracious reader. When she gets into the reading mode, I retreat to my office/man cave and play guitars or video games (more often the former lately 😀). She's not much of an outdoors person, so she doesn't usually come with me when I go on a hike or a photo shoot, which is partly the reason I don't go out and shoot more often.
There isn't anything I wouldn't do for her. I'd gladly lay down my life for her... To save hers. She's that precious to me. All I want is for her to be happy. I'm lucky that she's been happy with me for 29 years and counting (29 years of friendship and 22 years of marriage).
Thanks for reading.
Stay Tuned...
DeadGuitarist