Characters and Friends

In order for you to follow my stories (and in order to ensure I always use the same name to describe any one person) I'm going to share a cast of characters for my life (and create a cheat-sheet for myself). These are friends that I anticipate will appear in many posts or friends who tend to post on my blog. Some of the characters are less than friends, but they still appear in list this.

Baby Sis. She's in the Navy. Yeah, you know you totally want to sing the song now. She used to be on a ship in Hawai'i, which I loved. Then, she was somewhere in the Middle East, which I hated (her being in the Middle East; I don't - and didn't - hate the Middle East itself). She came home last November and is now safely serving the U.S. military in the continental U.S. I like this current station the mostest. Particularly, since my parents prefer that only one of us is outside the U.S. at a time. This means I have dibs on international travel for the next three years. Yay me! Oh, in case you didn't get it from her pseudonym, she's my younger sister. We have a Big Bro, but he doesn't pop up on here as often.

Big Bro. He's an attorney, too, which drives my mom insane. We used to compete over everything when I was younger. When we were young, he was always a cop while I was always on the drug dealer team. When I was in the sixth grade, I decided I wanted to be a writer, but he was older so he went out and won a few competitions. Then, I wanted to go to law school and even though he's older he totally copied off me and said he wanted to be a lawyer. We stopped competing when we went to college and (sort of) grew up. He defended me when the rest of my family grew increasingly annoyed with my hermit lifestyle in my law school days. Now, though, we're back to the occasional ridiculous competition. And while he appears in my posts less often, it's mostly because he causes less drama and doesn't live far from here. Oh, and his job is relatively safe.

BusterLawDog. Buster, or BLD as he is sometimes called, is a friend and used to be a blogger. A constant source of stability and calmness, he has experienced a number of my most excruciating moments in my recent life. He has also been a mini-cheerleader on some of the best days.

Church Crush. He's no longer my crush, but I haven't taken to renaming him yet (although Dr. Zhivago may be his new pseudonym). He can be kind of a jerk and he's often socially awkward. Okay, he has numerous good qualities, too, but I try not to spend too much time thinking about those because it sometimes makes me forget that I shouldn't have a crush on him. In truth, my crush was ridiculous, and based primarily on all the things I heard about him and not on what he's actually like in real life. He's an example of the classic problem I have: I tend to like guys until I actually get to know them. Then ... well, then they always disappoint.

FormerlyAnonymous. Frequent commenter. I don't know how he found me or where he came from, but he posted lots of comments on my old blog and I hope/anticipate he'll come over here. He claims I'm his blogcrush, but it was I who had to write him sonnets.

George. My former roommate's former fiance. We met in Bible Study and it is he who connected me to my former roommate. He's conservative. Like twenty-two steps to the right of George W. Bush conservative. Scary conservative. And as such, a cause of many of the frustrations in my life. He's the living example of the kind of Christian that makes all my non-Christian friends hate Christian and makes me cringe when I tell people I'm a Christian. His pseudonym is derived from his heroic worship of the President on all matters not fiscally related.

Jewels. One of my two closest friends, we've known each other since she was twelve and I was thirteen. That means that we've now known each other for over half our lives and she still puts up with me. She is practically a second sister as her family often buys me Christmas presents, her parents send me greeting cards when I start a new year of school, and her brother has been known to tell me to go put on more clothes before leaving the house. She is now married to a man she first met when they were babies stuck in the church nursery together. After her now-husband proposed at her parents' house two Christmases ago, she ran to his house quickly before coming over to share the whole story with my family. In that one afternoon, her then-fiance spoke more words than I heard him say since we were fourteen.

JC. One of my closest friends from undergrad, she is now a Ph.D. in English literature. As such, we spend a great deal of time analyzing Harry Potter. I was preprogrammed to hate her after she "stole" one of my sorority sister's boyfriends (she didn't; and he wasn't worth the uproar it created) and after she she wrote a column in our school's newspaper explaining that she was forever turned off to sorority life because of my sorority (there was a favorable side to that story, but my sorority sisters decided we would take the bad side to the extreme). Now, more than five years on, I talked to her more than I talk to almost any of my sorority sisters. We edited our paper together, sat in the same major, and we survived the professor who told me I needed to start wearing clothes together. She's now a semi-frequent commenter.

John Jacob JingleheimerSchmidt. Formerly Best Guy Friend, he is still one of my closest guy friends, but I wanted a better name for him. This one is appropriate for reasons that don't really need to be written down.

Joshua. He used to be known as New City Guy, but now he gets a real name. It's not his real name, but still . . . it's an improvement, right? As I explained in an earlier post, his pseudonym comes from his affection for Joshua Harris's dating advice. His affection for the dating advice is one of the reasons this occasional more-than-friend will, ultimately, remain just a friend.

Julie. The other of my two closest friends (yes, both of my two closest friends are named Julie). She actually worked for the college I attended. She is my oft-consulted spiritual adviser and usually the first person I whine to after a new relationship has failed. After always being a bridesmaid for her younger friends, she finally got to be a bride last summer (two weeks before Jewels's wedding). While this should be a source of comfort for me, as she is in her thirties and is married to the first guy I actually liked for her, her new status can sometimes be annoying as she now often reminds me that she had to wait a really long time so she understands what I'm going through. She's still one of my closest friends, though, and I love her for her compassion and willingness to put up with me.

LawvLife. My first blogfriend to transfer into real life, we now usually talk a couple of times a day. She's the kind of friend you always hope you are, but you're never really sure that it's possible. yeah ... she's that cool.

Modern. Sometimes ME or his full blogger name Modern Esquire, he's also a friend from law school. We had a rocky start to our friendship, but I now talk to him as frequently - often times more frequently - as anyone else from law school. He's also a die hard Dem.

The Pope. The most recent guy in my life. We met through one of those dating services I hate to talk about. 20-some dimensions said we were perfect for each other... he's pretty cool, but I hope you'll forgive my skeptic self when I say I'm not holding my breath while I wait to see how it works in real life.

Ram. F/K/A "1L guy Friend," he eventually needed a name change after he became a 2L. That didn't happen, but as he is now a law graduate, he finally gets his own name. An Indian god, he continues to awe me with his prowess and his massive intellect. And man... this guy can pronounce the word "stiffle" like no other. Mad skills. Hidden talent: he can pronounce almost any word backwards. Like backwards, which he would be able to pronounce as "sdrawkcab" with barely a thought. He has no ability to drink - whatsoever - so I'm lucky to have a designated driver almost anytime I need him. I love him. He can love me. It's a great relationship.

There are more to come as they are used, I'm sure.