JohnsonsPartyOfFour: My Friend, Chicken!!!

I don't have a lot of friends...here in Grand Junction. When I first moved here in 2007 I enrolled myself into college and found a job right away at a fast food restaurant (I hated it)! I really had no life...all I did was work, school, home...repeat. Ha ha! Then in October of 2008, I got hired to work as a station agent for American Eagle Airlines. I have always wanted to work for the airlines when I was just a little girl, so this was like a dream come true. And let me tell you...it is one of the hardest job to get into. I applied a year before I got hired. And then there's all these background check/security majicky that you have to go through! Life of being in the airline industry. My job was hard and I say this with all honesty. As a station agent you don't just stand at the counter checking in customers and or board the aircraft. You do everything and I mean EVERYTHING!!! I loaded and unloaded bags, marshaled the aircraft in, pushed it back for departure- this means I hook up the plane to what we would call an "aircraft pushback" and drive this pushback with the aircraft attached to it away from the gate for it's departure, checked-in customers, board the flight, do baggage claims, secure the flight, clean the aircraft...you see what I mean when I say EVERYTHING! And those are just a few of the things I did as a station agent. But I enjoyed it a lot and so I worked so many hours. Work was my second home.

Okay so how is this story related to my blog post? Well, you see I have this friend I call CHICKEN...actually, we call each other CHICKEN!!! I love her and am truly grateful that I am someone she calls a friend. I met Liz when I worked for American Eagle airlines and when I came in as a new employee I knew from day one that we will be great friends! She trained me one morning loading bags into the baggage cart and I liked her right away. She was the most organized, efficient person I have ever met in my life. We had something in common and I thought it was cool that we shared several traits-- ORGANIZED, CLEAN FREAK, and what my husband would call "A.D.D." She was a hard worker too and so I loved working with her. She always had a "game plan" (as she would say it) that was very organized so working with her was stress-free and rewarding whenever the job was done.

She also had a very sarcastic attitude that for some reason I loved. And I dislike sarcasm in any way and form. A very devoted faithful member from church gave a lesson one Sunday and said something that really stood out to me. She said something like this, "I dislike sarcasm and it's a rule in our home that sarcasm is not allowed." I thought that was a great rule and it has become a rule that I try to enforce within our home. I love this sarcasm sign and I am on a hunt for it so I could post it on my front door. Ha Ha! But with Liz, I enjoyed her sarcasm and I loved being sarcastic with her. Maybe its because her sarcasm wasn't too extreme where it can cause ill feelings and be very offensive. They are ones that we can both get a kick out of it laughing and move on to the next sarcastic comment. She is so tight and I could sit whole day with her and be entertained by her black ghetto-ness when it does come out of her. Liz has her own kind of language and I would always end up picking them up because they are just too cool. She is awesome when it comes to that. Some of the phrases that I picked up from her were, "Tight tight baby girl", "Thanks Big Baby", "Yo home slice" and "Nice One Skills". These are just some of them. But there are quite a few that I would probably take a whole hour listing them. She got me hooked on Tyler Perry movies, Madea and we would watch all of them and just laugh our butts off. Quoting Madea was Liz's specialty and one of my favorite...it still is!

She is an amazing friend and I am truly grateful that the Lord guided me to her. She has great faith in God and she is very knowledgeable about His gospel. Liz and I practice two very different religion, but I have always felt very comfortable talking about gospel principles and about God with her. She is a great listener, mentor and is very good at uplifting my spirits when I need it the most. Check her blog out here, she is a great writer too! That is probably why I love her so much. Oh and did I tell you that Liz has the most cleanest mouth? Ok, I'm sure she has a clean mouth! What I am trying to say is that, she is the first black person I have met that DOES NOT CUSS AT ALL, I repeat... SHE DOES NOT CUSS! I was shocked when I first learned this about her. But I am glad I don't have to plug my ear holes when talking with Liz.

We have been through so much in both our lives and it is funny how it is almost so similar. Liz got engaged while I was on my mission. And she had her wedding just a month and a week before I got home. I was bummed that I did not get to celebrate with her on her special day. But from the pictures I've seen, she was the most beautiful bride and looked very happy as she married her very tall, athletic husband. She sure did have fun shaking her booty without me :-P I got married shortly after I got home from my mission too then had Laien 11 months later. My friend Liz had Ms. Kamea just 8 months after I had Laien. We are both mommy's now and it's been nice having a close friend to talk to about basically anything! She is an amazing mother and I admire the dedication and love she has for Lil Kamea. Marriage and motherhood has really kept us on our feet so we haven't really had a chance to hang out. But Liz is such a wonderful friend and she would always try to plan something out for us to do. I told you I have the coolest friend!

You are probably wondering if we've ever had any fights, disagreements or some type of drama in our relationship. Well to tell you the truth, NO! Liz reminded me today of only ONE little fight that we had while working together. And we couldn't remember what it was all about? But it was not a big fight and it did not last long. We think it was just a disagreement on how we both did our job which pissed us both off and we went our separate ways. Ha ha! We did not talk to each other nor did we want to be around each other. We had two cool co-workers that both talked with us separately trying to tell us to get over what we were feeling towards each other. Liz remembered me saying, "Just leave us alone. We both need our time but we will talk later." Oh geez! Sounds like myself back then. Like I said, it did not take long and we were driving to Taco Bell after work for some Fruitista. LoL! And that is why I appreciate and love my friend, Chicken! We have so much in common so we know how to deal with each other. I am truly grateful for her and the beautiful friendship that we have...I value it so much and she is someone very special to me.

So after about six months since the last time we've seen each other, the very thoughtful Liz invites Laien and I to come over for a swim. It was nice seeing her and Kamea and do some catching up. I wish we could just hang out whole day with our babies. Kamea was just a happy baby and smiled the whole time. Laien was very comfortable to be around them, which is usually not the case when he is in an unfamiliar place with people he doesn't know too well. But I am sure Laien knew we were with mommy's best friend and there is no need to be shy or uneasy. We enjoyed it and we are looking forward to create more memorable moments with each other and our babies.