JQ and AJ: Dynamic Duo or Scientific Experiment Gone Horribly Wrong?

Okay, so, this post is dedicated to the one, the only, Julie B. Quinlan with whom I've shared my laughter, my tears, my fears... well, my life for the past fifteen(ish) years. She has been by my side through everything... even when she was away at school, she was still the closest friend I've ever had.

We met on a cold, windy day at a bus stop. I kid you not. We awaited the Catarqui Woods bus headed for Holy Cross. Incidentally, we were dressed alike, and perhaps that's what drew us to each other. Then again, we were in uniform, and were dressed like every other girl at that bus stop, but that is neither here nor there.

We got to talkin'. We discovered much about our linked pasts. Actually, as I sit and reflect on this cool day in September, I don't recall a damn thing. I know it must have been something special, and I would like to equate it with the sentimental visions I have of our blossoming friendship, but, what probably took place was that I ran to the bus stop (late, as always) and Julie was standing there, looking pristine and prepared and I thought "Only a loser is on time..." but, instead of saying that, I said "Hey..." and she likely replied with a "Hey..." herself. And there you have it. An instant bond. An undeniable connection of souls. A connection that would last a life time. Or maybe we just sat on the bus and talked about grade nine. Either way, the real, basic truth behind all this babbling is that we met one day in grade nine at the bus stop.

From there, our romance... uh... FRIENDSHIP became the bond that I spoke about above. We were soon spending all our time after school together and taking turns bugging each other's parents by being holed up in our rooms cranking the music and laughing.

Now, here is where it gets weird.

"Cranking the music and laughing"? What's so special about that, you ask? Well, nothing really, I suppose. Generations of girls had done it before us, just as generations of girls have done it after us. What was different, however, were two things:

1. We listened to records. On a record player. In my room. It was 1992. (Much more about that later.
2. The things we laughed at (and laughed so hard that I can still actually laugh about them now) were things like shoving as many grapes in our mouths as possible, resulting in getting red grape skins stuck on our braces, drawing pictures of each other doing the most inane things, pretending to have seizures to music, performing concerts (I can not tell you how serious we were about these things), made music/dance videos, etc. We didn't do eache other's hair, we didn't dress up, we didn't smoke (ok, we did once...), we didn't do drugs, we didn't even drink. We just laughed. Like idiots. Something that continues to this very day.

There are many, many, MANY more things which make our friendship the most unique of any that I know, but, they're generally things that only Julie and I get. But, because this is a blog, and one day I may forget the many memories Jules and I have made over the years, I'm going to force myself to list as many of them as possible:

• Julie and I were so excited to get our liscences that we obsessed over it, drawing pictures almost everyday to each other depicting us in our "Disco Car" (heavily related to our said use of my record player and the Stars on 45) grooving away down the road. Most of these pictures also had a grape skin stuck to Julie's braces... a joke that would inevitibly repeat many times over the years.
• Julie once chased me down our street in the rain wielding a steak knife, aimed and poised at stabbing me in the face. Ok, I'm exaggerating. However, Julie knew how terrified I was (and still am) of being chased by anyone or anything at any given time. So, being the best friend that she is, she took that knowledge and used it to victimize me. I was standing in her living room, trying to find something on TV, when she called to me from the kitchen "April? Look here..." and she had this hideous grin on her face and was coming toward me with the knife. She chased me through the living room, into the kitchen and out the front door. I was so scared, I ran all the way home in the rain, in my sock feet, as fast as I could. Julie, on the other hand, laughed so hard she stopped running the minute I left the house, and stood on her lawn in convulsions, watching me flee in terror. What a great friend.
• We used to write poetry as a game; we'd have one minute to write a poem about a subject of the other's choosing. There are two of these poems that both Julie and I still remember to this day: The Sunflower and Kitty/Dinner. Ask us about them. You won't regret it. Unless you have a life. In which case, keep reading.
• Julie and I made up our own language, consisting of only three sounds: Tar, Tee and Too. Again, ask us if you're intrigued. (And, how can you not be intrigued by that?!)
• Julie and I would spend hours - literally hours - playing a game wherein we would shine a flashlight on the ceiling and write words and have the other person guess what we were writing. The game was called "What am I writing?" (We're beautiful and witty) and every time one of us couldn't tell what the other person was writing, we would guess "Garfunkel?"
• Our favourite answer to every single question on Jeopardy was "Bangladesh." Like much in our lives, there was no rhyme or reason whatsoever for this. The best day ever, though, was when I once used it, and it was actually the correct answer, and Julie and I laughed so hard Julie shat her pants. Ok, I made that last part up. But, it was funny.
• We liked to record our own "Radio Shows". I'm not really sure why. All I know is that somehow I convinced Julie that one of these radio shows should coincide with an assignment she had to do for her grade 12 business class. She had to record something, and I said we should do a radio show as well. It's all very blurry now. But, I know there was a pirate involved (who was obviously played by me) and some kind of East-Indian pervert (who was obviously played by Julie). We still used a catch phrase from it, though the tape is long gone.
• Julie starred in our grade ten one-act play called The Dinner Party and by starred I mean she was quite possibly the best thing to ever grace the stage in the drama studio at HC. Highlights include (but are not limited to): Julie perpetually attempting to suppress her ridiculous grin every single time she came on stage; Julie peeling an orange and having the juice shoot up and squirt her directly in the eye, thus blinding her for a solid three minutes of the show; Julie's line "Whatever, Mom... this is the age of Aquarius..." and April (giggling like a banshee) switching the stage lights to a washed-out blue, and playing the song of the same name, while Julie dances (yes, DANCES) around the table as the rest of the cast freeze in tableaux (ps. at the time, this seemed like a fantastic idea... a real "scene-stealer" if you will. It was not. Nobody laughed. Except April and Julie... which tends to happen a lot); April comes on and is the pivotal role for the show as she has to deliver awful news to the family that their house is being condemned; April forgets every single line and sits, like a deer in headlights, and watches the play unfold like the slow death of a lion in battle; Charlotte (the lead of the play) tries to clean up the mess April has created by spouting forth (through tears) all the news I was supposed to deliver; Julie, again, trying to suppress said grin at the debauchery that I had caused.
• Julie and I have about 2, 763, 421 inside jokes. I would write them all out in detail, but some things are better just left the mystery that they are. Here is a list of some of them:
  - Mashed Rat Meat Rap - Mash Around
  - "Wicked! Wicked! I'm a dickhead! And everybody in the school thinks I'm a dickhead! That's wicked... wicked awesome... yeeeeeeeeeeeeah."
  - "I'm a d(s)ough-awg. D(s)ee-Oh-Gee, d(s)ough-awg. And I'mina sssschoolwheredere'ssss noother d(s)ough-awgs.
  - Dream Weaver.
  - "I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead."
  - "Mr. Mazonchelliiii.... do you think you'll play soccer 'til you diiiiiiie?"

So, that is Part One of the "Adventures of Quinlan & Johnson." It is up to you if you'd like to tune in again. I am sorry if you lost brain cells and/or contemplated institutionalizing either and/or both of us upon reading some of these things. If you fall into the latter category, however, I strongly recommend NOT checking out Part Two... which should arrive shortly.

The Reader's Digest Version of OUR LOVE

So, I had written out this big post about how we had an on again/off again relationship for years (literally) and how Paul finally realized I am the woman for him... you know, lots of fun, cheesy stuff like that, but, I realized it was kind of boring and, well, maybe it's something only Paul and I need to know. Except if you were there during it, then I guess you know, in which case I don't need to "blog" it, do I?

What you really want are more pics.

So, I'm starting with our OAC formal. While it still wasn't a great night (did anyone have a great formal night?), you can see that my fashion sense improved a bit over the twelve months . And Paul dyed his hair... um, blonde... even though he is blonde. It was for rugby, apparently. Because they won. Don't ask.

Here is Paul's graduation pic. Not the greatest of quality as it is from our OAC yearbook, but, it's the best I could do. Mine, however, looks like crap when I tried to upload it. So, I took it off.

And, I guess I should post some pics of my friends... most notably the one and only (P)(B)ootie / Tootie / Horhay / Guandalar Feldnoos / George / Superfly Julie Snooka / Jules / Quinlan / JQ... wow... I didn't know she had that many nicknames until I went to write them down. (Note: what's funny is that we share a common nickname from that list... yet, only used by each other... try to find it.) Unfortunately, over the years, Jules and I haven't taken the "best" of pics together. It's actually a travesty, really. I will post the best of what I can find... in my next post!

Stay tuned!

More Blasts from the Past

I'm hooked on these old pics. I'm like my father in that I can lose myself in my own history. Meh. Whatever. I've decided to post some more. They somewhat tell the story of our first year together... or, maybe they're just really funny and I had to post them.

However, for some reason, when I add pictures to my posts, the image re-configure-er is turning them sideways? I don't quite get it. Anyway, here's a few that I could manage to manipulate.

Me on the '94/'95 cheerleading team. I'm top left - yep, the one who looks like my face has been mauled by a feisty blackbear. Mmm... attractive. Intersting note: one of my maids of honour, Antonella, is top right, and two of my bridesmaids, Amy and Lauren are 3rd and 4th in from the left in the second row.

Ok, just to prove that the paralysis of my face was caused only by my digital camera, here's a better shot of myself, Amy and Antonella in action, about to cheer for CKWS News. Not sure where Lauren was... maybe actually doing her job and cheering on the football team? Also not sure how we were "newsworthy" that day. Perhaps just 'cause we were so dang goooood lookin'.

And a final shot of yours truly cheering on the sidelines.

I'm likely cheering for Paul at this point, as you can probably tell by the huge grin on my face. Actually, I vaguely remember this shot being taken and the real reason for the grin was that I was thinking "Get that #%*$@# camera out of my face!!"

And that, my friends, is because I'm all class.

The Beginning

Ok, so I guess we should start at the beginning. A good place to start would be grade 12. This is the year we "found" each other. See, I put quotation marks around that word because, truth be told, I (April) had a fondess for Paul since grade nine. More about that later. Anywho, this is the year we had grade 12 and OAC Math together. Coincidentally, I sat in the seat ahead of him, and the rest, as they say, was history. Or... uh... math. Whatever. You get the picture.

Speaking of pictures, here are some golden oldies. Paul and me in grade 12. Can you feel the love? Or, is that just Paul's awesome 'do? I'd put money on the latter. What's that? Oh, what's the deal with my hair, you ask? Well, I can only assume that its body and frizziness is thanks to years of home perms catching up with it. You read right: home perms. Do they even exist anymore? Something tells me they were taken off the market due to health regulations. That may explain a lot, actually.


I digress. So, you've enjoyed a couple of blasts from the past here. Let's move on to the story of our first date.

As far as "dates" go, prior to ours, I don't think I had ever been on one. So, when Paul (who was seeing someone else at the time - Tsk! Tsk! Tsk!) asked if he could drive me to the Peter Carty Memorial that fateful night in February 1995, I thought "... drive? Do you know where I live?" In fact, those were the exact words I said to him. To which he replied "Yes... umm... but, I'll pick you up." And he did.

So, off we went to the basketball game and cheered on our friends on the court. I remember the night very vividly, actually. (I feel like the narrator on the Wonder Years right now... which, I guess, isn't a bad thing.) Anyway, he left early and I didn't give it a second thought. Then - lo and behold - the phone rang when I got home. And my life changed forever. Paul and I began a long journey that night which I don't think anybody in their right minds would have thought would still be going strong in 2006. But, here we are. And that's the story of the beginning.

To finish this off, here's a solid pic of us at our grade 12 formal. I promise we got better looking as time went on. And, my fashion sense improved. A little.

This is us. April and Paul. We are getting married in the summer of 2007. We met in highschool and have had one of the craziest, most unpredictable and fantastic relationships I know. We've seen each other through the ups, the downs and the in-betweens. And through it all, our love just keeps getting better.

Over the years, we've found out one thing for sure: love is not easy. It's hard. Damned hard at times. So hard that at first, you think it's awful because it's not the fairy tale you were promised, then, you stop believing in fairy tales for a bit, and then you realize that the fairy tale is just this: the fact that you found love with someone. Whomever they are. That's it. And no matter how low things may seem, love is always there. Always.

So, here is our story. It's not always pretty. It's not always perfect. But, it's love. Good love. Forever love.