Anna and I met through our husbands (then boyfriends). Drew and Greg were suite-mates during their freshman year of college. Anna came down from Vermont (before she enrolled in PBA) for Spring Formal and I got to meet her then. She seemed nice, and both of us liked each other, but sort of thought we had too little in common to be friends. Actually, we had just enough in common to be great friends and enough difference between us to keep it interesting.
Anna is a vegetarian. I am not. Anna is a hippy. I am not. Anna likes organic, natural, bohemian things. I like processed, plastic, pink sparkly things. She has super cute style in clothes, but it is completely different than mine. She is from a very small and cold town in Vermont (Yankee territory) and I am from Hot-lanta. She had a biased against people from the South, and I may have been a bit prejudiced about Northerners. Regardless, we are great friends.
She and Greg lived about 1 block south from Drew and I last year. That was so much fun! We would take walks together to the local market, carpool to our Zumba classes (which we obsessed over so much that we bought $70 worth of DVDs and have never used them), rearrange furniture until 2am, and of course, meet for tea, her awesome white chocolate cranberry cookies, and girl talk.
She is a wonderful listener. I always go to Anna when I have a crisis or need advice. She understands me and gives me Godly wisdom. I appreciate that so much!
She is incredibly talented. This girl is brilliant, plays the piano, the flute, makes beautiful jewelry, scrapbooks, can cook, and is fantastic at baking the aforementioned cookies! (Man I miss those!)
Drew and I were blessed to be able to be a part of Greg and Anna's wedding about a year and a half ago, and she and Greg were both attendants in our wedding party. She was such a help to me during the whole planning process.
We try to have a phone date every week or so and they are lovely. I need them! I love having a good girlfriend I can just chat with. Seriously, we will chat while grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, browsing the craft aisles at Michael's, and talk about everything and nothing all at the same time. We can just sort of live life together...on the phone. You really can't do that with many people! I am so grateful to have that kind of a relationship with her!
Anna, thank you for being a breath of fresh air in my life! I love how different we are and how close we are despite those differences. You are so kind and your heart is so gentle. I love being around you! Shopping with you at Sawgrass and picking out items for each other is one of my favorite memories with you! I respect you so much and look forward to our next conversation! Hopefully it will be in person, this week! Thank you for everything you are in my life: a friend, a sister, a teacher, a counselor, exercise partner, planner, and personal guru. You, my friend, are so dear to me!
Love,
Mary
This is a picture of us at my Bachelorette Party/Lingerie Shower: We were cooking. I like this picture because it is a good representation of Anna and me. We were having such a good time! 
And of course...one from the wedding! (Get used to wedding pics, I got a lot of them!)
