Ladies and gentlemen, the BarbeeQ! Or, the Blaine Barbee. I don’t even know where to begin. My Yoga friend, my Cute happily married friend, my c’est la vie friend.

Barbee and I met freshman year at UNC. I was running the sound board, she was in the play. At first (before we were properly introduced) I hated her because she was so pretty, and would run around her in cute hippy backless shirts with her rennaissance hair and freckles. But then it took about 3 seconds for me to fall deeply in friend-love with her.

She was in my first play at UNC – in which she played ‘ Trill,’ a young girl who thinks she’s 13? but she’s actually 25? What? I don’t know? Who has an imaginary friend (who is Jesus) and gets educated by a door to door salesman (selling vaccuums?) (what?) ( I don’t know.0 And that was only beginning of what became, and still is, despite the miles between us, quite a beautimous friendship.

Blaine was married last fall to Jason (who is AWESOME) and I was proud to wear the stretchy green dress of the union. They live in Carrboro, right outside of Chapel Hill, where all the cool kids live, with their children, Edie (The bear) and Victor (the Bad Boy.) ( happy family picture below.) They are both teachers and nature enthusiasts, and I kind of love knowing that they are there – like I’ll always have a home there. (Guest room, right guys? right?)

Blaine possesses this natural beauty that is nuts. She is perhaps the only girl that can make burping and sweaty pretty, and has this amazing mellow que sera sera attitude – this wisdom – that is seriously infectious.  In addition to teaching English to kids, To put the proverbial cherry on the top of her giant pile of awesome, she’s a certified Yoga teacher, too, and can do this and look good while doing it:

I mean, can you? I definitely can’t.

Which is one of the many, many reasons I keep her around.