This is a close-up of my bright red seatbelt purse. The purse used to belong to Hilary and I used stare at it longingly whenever she carried it around. Then to my surprise, a couple years ago she passed it on to me. It is, by far, my favorite! The fact that it is super cute is not the only reason I love it though. I love that it reminds me of HIlary and how wonderful she is. Hilary is the kind of person who would give you the clothes off her back if you needed them. She is also one of the smartest and funniest people I have ever met, I honestly couldn't love her more! The following is a short version on my favorite Hilary story.
One day about five years ago I was at the beach with a bunch of friends. If you have ever been to a San Diego beach in the middle of summer, you know that there are literally thousands of people there. We were all hanging out on the little bit of sand that we managed to get for ourselves and Hil and I decided that we wanted to go swimming. We were walking down to the water when we decided to run the rest of the way and jump into the water. (Hilary brings out the kid in me.) Unfortunately I didn't see the large mass of seaweed in my path and I tripped over it while running.
I don't fall gracefully. Ever. And the sight of me falling in a swimsuit is probably very scary.
This was not just your regular trip, this was a full on body smack on the sand. It happened so fast that I didn't even have time to throw my hands out and break my fall. I remember laying there face down and thinking that at least 200 people just saw me fall. I rolled over just in time to Hilary running towards me, shouting "ahhhhh" as she fell down beside me. Her fall was obviously fake and she turned and smiled at me really big and said something about how maybe everyone would think my fall was fake also. Then she grabbed my hand and dragged me into the ocean.
Hilary is the kind of friend who is willing to completely embarrass herself in order to save others from humiliation. I love her!
We were in the water for almost an hour and upon getting out, I realized that the sand has taken almost all the skin off the front of my right leg. It was still bleeding pretty badly. At that point, Andy J through some seaweed at me and told me that I could have gotten us all eaten by a shark because I was bleeding in the water. The next day at work everyone asked what happened to my leg (it was pretty gross) and Andy told this great story about how I saved a child's life and got scraped up in the process. But I couldn't let myself be the hero so I told everyone what really happened and made Hilary the hero of the story, a place she rightfully earned.
Hil, this is one of many many stories of my love for you. You are still my hero!
