Our fabulous friend Amy arrives in Raleigh tonight. In all other circumstances I would be cringing to think that someone would be staying with us under our current conditions. I mean, haven’t you ALWAYS wanted to fly across the country to sleep on an air mattress (albeit a nice one) on the floor in a room full of boxes? Thank goodness she likes us, she really, really does.

When I think of Amy, I flash back to LA and Manila most often. Granted we’ve also traveled to Vegas, Hong Kong, Costa Rica, Wisconsin, Virginia, Chicago and countless airports together…but our friendship was certainly solidified around our collective experiences in those two cities. While our lives circled differently, we both empathized with the strangeness and absurdity of it all. Our Philippine trips alone are worthy of a book.

As sad as it is, I don’t even recall the date that we last saw each other. I had just arrived back from the Philippines and she was moving back to Seattle. That alone says its been over a year. While I don’t know our itinerary yet this weekend, I know it will be filled with lots of revelry. No matter what we end of doing, there is always a story to retell afterwards. Just a few of the highlights:

Amy and I working all night in Manila and then napping at the HKG airport for a couple hours before running all over Hong Kong for a day. We enjoyed egg tarts, alcohol at all the scenic highlights, and an unexpected pirate experience. Amy almost got us poisoned when she insulted our waiter by placing a napkin over the 100-year-old eggs he set on our table. He did not care for this and spent the rest of the evening either glaring at the stupid American girls, or ignoring us. By this time we were a tad freaked at the food in front of us and the sounds emanating from the tables around us, so it really wasn’t too big of a deal to go hungry. She redeemed herself by not taking pictures of me sleeping on the train back to the airport that evening.

She still remained friends with me, even after I told the man that would marry her in a heartbeat that she “just didn’t love him that way and he should let her move on”. It was my birthday party, so I felt somewhat allowed to be drunk and surly. (And yes, I was out of line.)During Michael’s first graduation celebration I had a little too much to drink and decided to invite our cute Hungarian neighbor Bela over to the party. It would be wrong of me not to mention that it was midnight when I rang his doorbell. Amy not only came with me willingly, she also rescued my “Birthday Shoes” (an incredible pair of pink and flowery stilettos) as I kicked them off across his lawn on the way back to the party.

On one of the first fun (non-working) trips up to our Lake Arrowhead house, we discovered upon arrival that the gas company had inadvertently disconnected us. It was about 10p and 35 degrees outside. No gas, meant no heat. Even with desperate pleading, “it is 47 degrees IN my house!”, they couldn’t get anyone up the mountain to reconnect us until the morning. Michael, Amy, Iona and I curled up under mountains of blankets around our giant fireplace and consumed over four bottles of wine. I am proud to say that Amy’s hangover was far worse than mine and that she was the first person to “christen” our upstairs bathroom.

When we were down in Costa Rica for a business review, we took a day and went out on an island with a tour company. The day was delightfully peaceful except for the large extended family from New Jersey that was dropped off shortly after we sat down in our chairs. You can barely see them behind Amy, but know that we could hear them VERY CLEARLY from that distance. It was like being in the middle of a Sopranos episode. We could not stop laughing at the absurdity of it.

I love to cook and throw dinner parties and Amy is happy to oblige as a guest. That will be the only hard part of this weekend, as I don’t have the kitchen, the utensils, the spices, nor the equipment to properly make her a meal. These grand nights would inevitably end with her sleeping on our living room couch and sneaking out in the wee hours of the morning with leftovers.

One weekend she flew up to Wisconsin with Michael and I for the weekend. No surprise that she fit right into the family and that my parents just took for granted that they had ALWAYS had four daughters.

One of my favorite Amy moments is still from my MBA graduation party. She showed up already hungover/drunk and brought Jello shots. Best part? She forgot to mix them with ANY water, so they were pure vodka and Jello. Things would make your eyes water they were that good. I hadn’t realized my 30-something year old friends had that much entertainment still in them. People were falling down, stumbling into the street…just having a damn good time. We slept for a couple hours and then Michael dropped us off at LAX so that we could spend the rest of the weekend in Vegas. I am certain he would have gotten a DUI that morning if he’d been pulled over.

It will be great having the Twin Towers back together. Michael, I apologize in advance for having to take care of us this weekend. It is best to just sit back and enjoy the train wreck that will be happening before you.