wanted to be one in a million; baby, isn't that wrong?

[List 8 friends, in any order]
Number 1: Deb
Number 2: Farmer E
Number 3: Heidi
Number 4: Mumbler
Number 5: The Monkey
Number 6: Debbie
Number 7: The Cat
Number 8: Sleek

We’ll start backwards.. tell me about 8 (Sleek)

• Is this person older or younger than you? younger, of course
• How long have you known him? 8 years? Maybe a little longer. (Damn!)
• Who is this person dating (if anyone)? he announced his engagement to his girlfriend B., yesterday
• How often do you talk to him on Facebook? we email occasionally just to chat and always when there's exciting weather
• How often do you talk to him in person? rarely; we have a tendency to be somewhat volatile face to face, so we sort of avoid it
• Does he have any annoying habits? he can be sort of arrogant, but probably no worse than I am
• Has he ever asked you out? Ha! Not exactly.
• What’s this person’s favorite band? no clue. FB says he's 'liked' Disturbed, so he's probably happy that they have a brand new album that just came out.
• Does he go to the same school as you? um, no, but we used to work together
• Do you ever write this person notes during class? I don't think we've ever hand-written anything. Lots of email has passed between us, and a few days' worth of text and phone calls, though.

How about number 7? (The Cat)

• Younger or older than you? older, I guess, but we're both adults so it doesn't seem that way
• Have any classes together? we have done some training together, yup
• Does she make you laugh? oh, definitely. Every time we're anywhere near, and a lot of the time when I just see things she's written. She's got a way with words.
• Why number 7 and not higher (or lower)? 7 is my favorite of those numbers.
• Do you have any pictures of this person? I have pictures of this Cat.
• When did you meet her? a bajillion years ago when I started attending meetings for our professional committee
• Have you ever been in a fight with her? we were "on the same side" of being irrationally hollered at by a colleague. Have we ever fought with each other? No. We seem to be pretty good at getting along, over time, and at taking short breaks when we need them.
• Does this person live close to you? 45 minutes or so
• Have you ever been to her house? several times. By several routes, now. I'm an old pro.
• Would you ever go clothes shopping with her? I would, and I do. For two who are not "ladies of leisure", we seem to have a pretty damned good time.

And 6... (Debbie)

• How tall is this person? just a little bit shorter than me
• What kind of music does she listen to? she has a very broad taste. Though she's in a deep country phase right now, she's also been known to rock pretty hard and loud.
• How long have you known her? 12 years or so
• Do you ever talk to her outside of Facebook? just about every day. In fact, I very rarely talk to her on Facebook, because she has almost constant contact with me in a variety of easier/better ways.
• So, does she wear glasses or contacts? she wears glasses
• What’s something that only you two would understand? there are a million things running through my head right now, many of which are absolutely unrepeatable! Ummm...how about this: "Those jeans with the holes in them are potentially dangerous for everyone."
• Does she have a favorite animal? she's a cat person!
• Is she dating anyone? yes: Dave, her husband of many years
• Have you ever seen this person eat? sure. We've been friends for a long time, we work together, and I lived in her house for months.
• What does she like to do for entertainment? although she and her family are pretty big on movie-watching, and she likes music (as indicated above), there is very little that she loves more than a good book.

Number Fiiiiiiiiiiiiive. The Monkey

• Are you older or younger? we are exactly the same age.
• What’s your relationship with this person? wow, random. Um, we went to high school together. We're FB friends. And, yeah. We...have a bond.
• Is he taller or shorter than you? he's way taller, but most people are so it doesn't bother me
• What does his hair look like? "short"--and it's alleged to be jumping ship rapidly
• What kind of music does he listen to? bah. He's been a music snob, but seems to be recovering.
• What’s his ringtone on his cell, if he has one? no clue. He strikes me as the Silent type.
• How long have you known him? half a lifetime
• When is his birthday? 27 August
• Ever gone trick-or-treating with him? uh, no. That would have been very fun, though.
• Does he have any siblings? yep: a sister and a brother

Fab 4. (Mumbler)

• How close are you two? we're close. I trust him, and he's opened up to me in a way that is unusual.
• How long have you known him? almost 2 years
• Have you ever hit this person’s ass? I very rarely have the urge to answer one of these questions with a simple "LOL", but this is one of those times. In other words: No. I. Have. Not.
• Is he older or younger? younger, by too fooking much
• Favorite band? varies by the moment. He loves country (twangy shit is fine); he loves incomprehensible rap; he likes rock and some really crappy pop, too. If I had to guess a favorite, at the moment? Ryan Bingham.
• Any classes together? we were at the same table for the "staff day" festivities in April; that's the closest we've come
• Have any pets? he lives with a couple of dogs that he doesn't own
• Play an instrument? nope. His attention span is too short, I think, to bother.
• Do you love him? Could. Don't.
• Is he dating anyone? shockingly, no.

Numero Tres. (Heidi)

• How long have you known her? 5 years, almost exactly
• Are you older or younger? younger, naturally
• Ever been to her house? not the current one, in Alaska! But I stayed at her funky apartment in Norman (Oklahoma) for a couple of weeks a couple of years ago, one of the unforgettable experiences of my lifetime.
• Does she have any annoying siblings? she has an older sister I quite like, and a younger brother I've never met. Is she annoyed by them? Well, you'd have to ask her....
• What do you do together? see the next question!
• Have you ever passed notes with this person? the majority of our friendship has taken place while we've lived in separate states. We keep in touch almost entirely by mail. We go through spurts where we both write regularly. At other times, one will write and the other will just receive. Sometimes we're both out of phase and don't send anything. Occasionally we'll send packages, usually including at least one book and mix CD (which reminds me, she owes me a couple of playlists!) So, yeah: we pass notes.
• Have you ever gone out of the state with her? only in the sense of leaving this state to go to the one in which she lived. We'd briefly considered driving to Texas so I could get a tattoo while I was there (tattooing was not legal in Oklahoma at the time) but it ended up not fitting into our plans.
• Ever slept in the same bed? nope
• Do you talk to her a lot on Facebook? not "a lot" but, yeah, probably as often as I do anyone else. We leave haiku on each others' Walls now and then.

Now on to Number 2. (Farmer E)

• Are you best friends? we are really, really good friends. I can't imagine my life without her in it.
• How long have you known her? 8 years? I honestly don't know; I can't remember not knowing her, even though there have been disruptions in our working-together-ness.
• Ever bought her anything? oh yeah. We have a history of this sort of thing, highlighted by the chicken hatand my new "bacon" receptacle. (photo to come)
• Has she ever made you anything? she's made some ridiculously good food for me. She takes pity on me now and then (because I'm so disorganized) and provides lunch. Best lunch ever--absolutely no inducement for me to make my own lunch in the future!
• What’s her house like? I've only been there when there was a party going on, but from what I can tell, it's a comfortable sort of home where people (and dogs) are welcome to put their feet up, have a drink, and have some fun.
• Favorite band? something a little weird, a little wild, a little crazy, and inevitably coming in a box that folds out or is 3D or something else head-shakingly "Eeeeeee"
• Ever jumped on a trampoline with her? oh my God No. Talk about dangerous! My role, in a lot of ways, is to keep us out of jail and/or the emergency room.
• Do you have any classes with her? I don't think so. We'd get in trouble for sure; we giggle.
• Has she ever dyed her hair? I think maybe? But her hair is absolutely stunning--I mean, E. is absolutely stunning, and her hair is just one of the best parts--so it doesn't really matter what she does with it, it always looks great.
• What’s one of the dumbest things you’ve done with her? now that my last birthday is fading into unconsciousness for everyone (I hope!), there's not much that I would call "dumb" so much as "silly" and "fun." We've had a few shopping excursions, gone out for food, drank ourselves blotto, and had some conversations that I would not trade for anything.

Finally, your number 1. (Deb)

• So, why is she number one? she knows.
• Are you her number one? in some ways--hell, yeah. (To my knowledge, she does not have MySpace, and even if she does, I don't, so, I'm not.)
• Are you taller or shorter? taller, by a bunch
• Older or younger? younger by 4 months
• Do you two like the same music? some. I probably veer more toward the heavy stuff (and country, a lot of which she thinks is crap).
• Ever been to her house? many, many times. It's like home to me.
• What if you had never met this person? I don't want to think about it. There are literally tears in my eyes just from answering this question, if that says anything?
• When was the last time you saw her? a week or so. Too long.
• How did you meet? we had a couple of classes together our first quarter of college; we had the same major and they herded us into those same "weeders." Her memories of me are what one might call "iconoclastic," but only if the word "goofy" didn't exist--eating grapes out of an old margarine container, or flipping my (then much longer) hair over my face and inspecting it for split ends (oh yeah, this was during class), or eating Pop-Tarts at whatever time of day. I also had almost no scholarly grasp of the content of our classes. I wasn't the dumb kid, just the one who didn't belong doing what we were doing. Thank God I was released from that track soon enough.
  
  We stayed friends. Skipped class to go out for Chili-n-[Bread]Sticks at Happy Chef or to play ping-pong at the student union. Left notes on each others' cars (mine was easy to find, since I almost always parked in an almost-legal spot. Gotta love snow- and ice-accumulation during that long Minnesota winter!). Ran into each other occasionally in the building where most of my classes (and her minor classes) were held, and had impromptu marathon conversations that seemed to soothe something inside me that I hadn't realized needed soothing.
  
  She saved me. It was literal, in the case of those classes that I could have literally failed without her help. And it was figurative a hundred (thousand) times over, through her friendship that was always there but never intruded. I was blessed by my stubborn decision to declare that major in which I did not belong.

Now Then...

• Who’s the oldest? Debbie Youngest? Mumbler
• Who have you known the longest? The Monkey Shortest? Mumbler
• Ever been to a concert with any of them? If so, which ones? The Monkey...notoriously
• Who texts you? all of them, some much more than others!
• Talk to any of them on the phone? all of them. Debbie the most.
• Who did you last see? Mumbler
• Who do you wanna see? ...
• Who’s been to your house? all but Deb
• Whose house have you been to? The Cat's, Debbie's, Heidi's in OK, Farmer E's, and Deb's
• Who lives closest to you? Debbie
• Furthest away? Heidi
• Ever dated any of them? yep

Final Questions.

• Any of them related to you? scary thought. God, I hope not.
• Ever fought with any of them? I've been a little ticked with each of them at times, probably. I've had a screaming argument with at least one. I've chucked things at one (still sorry...). And I've definitely been on the receiving end of it. So, yeah. In a manner of speaking.
• Who’d you hug last? Farmer E.
• Do you think any of them will repost this? doubtful, but stranger things have happened

[from The Cat, who got it here; title quotation from "Ain't that Strange" by Rhett Miller]