The Bestest Friends

Argentinean or Brazilian? Brianna called me as she walked off the UCLA track and asked what I was in the mood for dinner. Having moved from the USA Olympic Training Center in San Diego to train in Los Angeles last year, she's my personal restaurant connoisseur when I'm out on the Westside. We've been best friends since we were fourteen and we were meeting the rest of our best friends from high school at LaLa's Restaurant on Melrose later that evening.

As we dipped the soft pieces of bread into the green chimichurri, we caught up on each other's lives. Brianna will be spending the summer in Europe competing in track and field (and earning a spot on the Olympic team!), Jennie talked about her adorable son, Ace, and her balance between motherhood and being the nation's leading softball pitcher (she'll be going to the Olympics again and hopefully add another gold medal to her collection!), Bianca just completed her Master's degree and is a free lance writer (she's currently working on a new translation of the Bible…she's amazing!), and Melanie just completed touring with American Idol's Taylor Hicks and is now working on Disney vocal productions. I'm so incredibly blessed to have such phenomenal friends…so much, yet nothing has changed and we're still each other's most favorite people. Sitting around the table last night filled me with such joy because there is no luckier person to have found a true friend…and I've found four. My cup truly overflows.

I want to thank them for the memories, the laughter, and the button-popping food fest last night…I'm nothing without them.