This post took me a while.
***
The day after Thanksgiving I received a phone call from Jordan that Dani was hit and killed by a drunk driver.
Do. Not. Drink. And. Drive.
All I remember, besides the blinding white light in my brain, was that I cancelled my clients, called my Mom and Nate for advice (thank you), and somehow drove to Jordan's house. The drive that seemed to last 3 hours. The next 15 or so days after that are a complete blur of trying to cope with extreme grief, crying, no sleep, the heart wrenching experience of packing up her room, losing my Gramps, traveling, and funerals. Jordan spoke at her funeral. It was beautiful. I was so proud of him. It was not easy.
God.
Doesn't she look beautiful in the photo above?
I remember the day it was taken like it was yesterday.
Only Dani would wear that incredible get-up to a summer bonfire.
I also love that the photo is classic snapshot of our relationship back in the day.
Despite our ups and downs I will always love her like a sister.
A true sister.
I have only had a couple true sisters in my lifetime.
Kind of a big deal.
***
Dani, remember all of the great times we had?
Like:
1. The time we thought it would be a great idea for me to stop writing my paper after a paragraph and turn it in with a note that said, "Dear Teach, I am in the middle of a lawsuit so this will have to do." This was also the time you proved to me you know Taylor Swift songs by singing them at the top of your lungs while I made fun of the music videos.
2. The days we listened to Psychic City while we made caesar salad and faux chicken sandwiches. We were My Two Mom's in those days.
3. The time we went out on the town until the wee hours. As we rounded the corner to Jordan's house on our bikes one of us said, "Do you think Dad is awake?" And he was sitting on the porch. We laughed so hard and then he made us those delicious vegan grilled cheese sandwiches.
4. The time I told you all about Handsy Tuesday and how ridiculous it was.
5. Endless driving in your truck that always included the windows down (even if it was freezing), the smell of your truck, and a Wendy's stop.
6. The time Nate and I bought you that silly ceramic mad lib decoration and filled it in with fake swearwords like fuzzy cuzzy. I loved that you still had that hanging in your room when we packed everything.
7. The time we came up with a T-shirt launching business with K2-Kev and Mike.
8. The day I was laid off and you came over to Nate's house where I was house sitting and made sure I ate something and then lip synced Strawberry Wine & Travelin' Soldier to cheer me up.
9. How you used to always say that you were in a Mendenhall sandwich, or that the Mendenhall eyes were getting to you.
10. The many times (every month) I went over in minutes because of our endless conversations about life.
11. YTDE texts.
12. Doublemint gum.
13. The time you wrote me an actual check for one billion dollars and you told me it was for Will Smith's greatest hits. Why? To cure the blues. I still have that check.
14. The time you convinced Nate to make us a last minute incredibly delicious steak salad. How did you do that? Then we took shark head pictures and drank coffee out of bowls. Laughing the entire time of course. One of the best nights.
15. How you are one of the few people to make the trek to my house...multiple times.
16. When we went to Modest Mouse with Becca.....life changing. You put your arm right around me when that one song came on and I was losing it as memories drained away.
17. The night someone was dramatic and kicked me out of their house in the middle of the night. You let me stay at Jordan's and made the annoyance wall out of sticky notes just to make us both feel better.
18. The time I texted you about something saucy that happened and it went to you and somehow Twitter. I didn't even deleted it...we just laughed.
19. The many mornings we would sit outside of Reuel's after a night at The W. We would talk and laugh about nothing. We were convinced we needed a reality show. We thought we were that funny.
20. Fighting like sisters.
21. The time you were super excited about me dating and you were very supportive, because as you said, 'you never get excited about anyone.'
22. Listening to the live version of Heartbeats by The Knife over and over on Keith's porch.
23. The cupcake dress.
24. The time we found the girl giving make-up tutorials that kept saying, "if you can last three hours you can last a lifetime."
25. How you thought the saying was "play it by year."
26. The time you ran your bike right into an obvious pole on state street.
27. Sing/dancing to Spice Girls with Tiff.
28. Our amazingly witty text exchanges.
29. The day we got a beer, a pizza, and watched Sex and the City in the middle of the day.
30. Our heart to hearts about anything and everything.
31. Listening passionately to the most random music.
32. The time you had a crush on my brother via cyberspace and you were scared to tell me that you two were going to hang out.
33. You sending me lyrics to Bob Dylan's Lay Lady Lay and Paulo Nutini's Last Request. Worked every single time.
34. How you could understand and empathize about anything...even stuff you had no clue about.
35. How you would always dress me up. It usually started like this: 'You are not wearing that.' Said with love of course. Not getting dressed up was never an option. You always told me I would feel better and beautiful. You were right.
****
Who would have know that one sarcastic exchange at the register at Nordstrom would have turned into all of this.
You will never be forgotten.
You were truly one of the most incredible people I have ever met.
I am so grateful we shared so many precious moments.
Thank you.
I miss you.
You are everywhere.
I wish we were able to discuss our 21/31 issues before you left, but I think we both have an understanding now.
I love you forever.
Au revoir.
Candia made an amazing Christmas Eve dinner.
I am really not sure where these glow sticks came from, but they turned into endless amounts of Christmas Eve fun.
Ron was over glow sticks and wanted to play Candy Land.
We play Xtreme Candy Land.
