I Almost Won A Porsche from Y94 FM

This post is an homage to my dear (dare I say best) friend Lizzie K, who's currently on the wrong side of the pond. As it is a day in which to be thankful, I thought I'd say I'm thankful for her. And I keep missing her when she calls me, and I feel like a big dumb jerk (only sometimes) so I thought I'd post a lil' montage from the years:
Well first, we didn't like each other. Not good first impressions. She didn't like my BUSTY shirt and I just thought she was another yappy kid. And then...

We went mattress sliding down the steps in Loon while on Summer Staff at Saranac.
"Umm...my hand is stuck under your boob."
"Well, I guess we're friends."
"HOW OLD ARE YOU GUYS!?"

And so it began. Shortly thereafter I moved to the Roch, and Liz was only 30 minutes away, down at Geneseo. We liked to get together and play kings and drink beer and order pizza and not do whatever we were supposed to be doing. Or we'd be at Suzy and my apt, drinking G&Ts, eating Yancy's Fancy with green apples (or the giant tub of port wine cheese) and watching "Gilmore Girls".There was the unfortunate incident of one-on-one beer pong right before Christmas, the fun of BOOYAH BOWLING 2 with Dylan in fabulous Onieda, NY. "Hey...it's like we're the Mamas and the Papas! Except you're not Mama Cass...and that's not acid." Liz, wearing a poncho in the back of Dylan's old Bronco (no heat), with the souvenir pint glass and token American flag sticker from BOOYAH. Then there was a crazy new years, walking laps around the traffic circle in the snow, midnight Wendy's runs, spring break in VA ("Did you just reference 'Hatchet'"?), legwarmers, hiking with my sister and my mom, a night out with the neighbors, scary Fanny and Joel, and more. I moved back to VA and she went back to Syr for the summer. There was the 10th Annual Lake Ontario Party (here's to our glow in the dark "FIRST TIMER" visors) and a photo I know she hates:
And then...she was gone.
Off to London.
Too far for my tastes. I couldn't call her. I could write but it was always ancient as soon as the ink dried. We both had rough years, times of transition and trials. I didn't see her again until April, when I got to go to the UK to visit said Watkus. I stepped off the plane and we were wearing the same shoes. She handed me a coffee and said, "Welcome." Then she took me to eat and get some pints. We let Paul guide us so we could talk. And talk we did. For the next week we drove all over, rode all over, spent $$ all over, doing serious tourist things, like this:We almost ended up on a ferry to France, didn't even stop at all the cathedrals Paul told us to, drank pints in some fine establishments, almost got into a fight trying to navigate Bristol, looked like couple while at Stonehenge ("One of the largest henges in the world! Before Stonehenge there was Strawhenge and Woodhenge..."), just wanted to buy a $#!@ car stereo, smoked a pack of camels and half a pack of cloves, made friends at an Iron and Wine show, and, of course, giggled hysterically at Henry VIII's softball-sized codpiece:
One of my favorite photos with Liz is one we took back in the fall of 2004. We decided to go for a hike at Chimney Bluff's State Park, out on the shore of Lake Ontario. It was a great trip, just laughing and climbing hills and trails. We sat down on the beach there and snapped this photo:
We joked that it was our feet looking at Canada, somewhere out there. But I like to believe that it was us looking at the future too, in some cheesy way. It's vast, it's unclear what will come. But we're in it together. Miss you friend.

(Liz has an old, old t-shirt that says "I almost won a porsche from Y94FM" that she wore all the time. Hence the post's title.)