My Groggy Bloggy: My JAM

When Joe and I decided to move to Alabama we took a leap of faith. We knew no one. No family, no friends, no colleagues. All we had were each other (1 month into marriage) and Joe's job. Although we both grew up wanting to leave Indiana, never in a million years did either of us ever think we'd end up in Alabama. As an outsider moving into the land of Roll Tide and War Eagle I quickly noticed a clique-ness to this state. Most of the people I met were from here and stayed here. They had their groups of friends set from high school and college so it was difficult to enter those groups. Also, their families were here. Between the two, these locals knew a lot of people and always had plans. Joe and I are fairly social people so that wasn't going to fly with us. We wanted to meet people, we wanted to make friends and we wanted to be happy here and with our choice to move here. Joe's jobs didn't really contribute to the friend-making game because he often worked from home or traveled and his few coworkers were of a much different age bracket and in a different phase of life. Luckily my line of work (media and advertising) assisted in meeting people more our age and without kids, and over time we were able to accomplish our goal. Throughout our almost 10 years here we have created a lovely list of friends, but I'd like to focus on three. The four of us worked together at an advertising agency. I will refer to them as my JAM (Jenna, Amanda, & Marcie).

Amanda, aka Mandi

Mandi was my first real friend after moving here. We actually worked together at a TV station before the ad agency, which is how we met; she had gotten the position I really wanted. We learned that we lived fairly close to each other and both had a dog. We went on many doggy dates, always brought our dogs to each other's house and became each other's free dogsitter. We both moved from the city to the small suburb of Helena at the same time which allowed us to continue our dog rituals. When she moved on to the ad agency, she helped me get a job there. She's very sarcastic and I like that.

Marcie

I'll never forget the day I met Marcie. It was my first day at the ad agency and I had an experience at lunch that's not much unlike entering the lunch room on your first day starting at a new school. I hadn't brought lunch that first day on the job so I quickly ran out and picked something up to bring back and eat in the lunch room with a group of women I saw. The moment I got back and sat with them they almost all immediately got up and left to go back to their offices, leaving me sitting there by myself. Marcie, who had started 3 months prior, and another lady were heating up their lunches and invited me to eat with them. Our friendship formed that day and anyone who knows her will tell you she's friends with everyone. She doesn't like seeing people left out. She has the loudest laugh ever and I like that.

Jenna

Jenna started a couple years later at the agency. By this point Mandi, Marcie and I were eating lunch together most days with a group of ladies. Jenna knew one of those ladies from high school so she began eating with us almost immediately. Jenna seemed different to me than a lot of the girls I had met who were from here. She didn't seem clique-y or so dependent on a set group of friends. We had similar senses of humor, we were both laid back and over time our lunch table friendship branched out to spending time together outside of work. Our husbands got along immediately as well which helped form a close bond between the four of us. She likes to talk dirty and I like that.

(I tried getting pictures of you all with your hair blowing in the wind. You're welcome).

Over time we all left that ad agency, but the four of us have managed to stay close and enjoy a lot of life highlights together. I've seen 2 get married, all have their first baby, all go through job changes, 1 have a partial house fire, 2 move into new houses, threw baby showers for each other, traveled to Hawaii with one, threw a bachelorette party for one, took a gun safety class with one, among many more memories. While Jenna and I got to experience first time motherhood together, I was so excited to learn that Mandi and Marcie would get to do the same! One via adoption in December and the other born in January. Both babies are happy, healthy and home!

Going from families of 2 to families of 3 over the past couple years have definitely decreased our time together, but we still manage to find time to see each other. And all of our husbands have become friends so the 8 (now 12) of us get together for family-oriented get-togethers. Years ago we were getting drunk and belting out karaoke at Marcie's house. Now we're having quick dinner outings at cheap mexican restaurants or seeing each other at children's birthday parties. Although our lives have drastically grown and changed I am so thankful that our path to Alabama lead me to my JAM. We're all good people with similar senses of humor, same values and wanting the same things out of life. We've explained the deepest personal details of our anatomy to each other and Marcie and I know way more about each other than we ever wanted to know due to playing The Newlywed Game. We've all been in situations of despair or vulnerability and all of us would drop what we're doing to help each other. Although I (we all) hated the majority of the time we were at that ad agency, I am glad that it brought us all together. A girl needs girlfriends and I'm so glad that even though they all grew up in this state, they accepted a transplant like me.

The first many years we lived here I was missing home because even though we had gained many good friends, they weren't friends I had history with. I missed hanging out with my friends that I could reminisce with about high school or college or childhood. There's a different type of conversation with old friends vs new friends. But now that we've been here for 10 years I can look at these "new friends" as friends with history. I have 5-10 years of memories with each of them and whether or not we all stay here forever or get separated by future moves, we can always pull back together and reminisce. Here's a good start:

New Years party back when we used to party (and apparently when chokers used to be in style) - 2006 or 2007

Celebrating one of Mandi's 20-something birthdays at a bar. Now we opt for dinner out with friends and drinking wine while playing board games. Circa 2009 or earlier