It's My Best Thing: IMBT Birthday Shoutout: Roomie & Rachie

This post is in honor of two of my all-time faves: Rachel, one of my closest friends from high school had her birthday yesterday, and my female roommate Jina is celebrating hers today.

During my recent trip to New York I stayed with Rachel for a couple nights and had a blast. Over the years she has always welcomed me into her home when I've visited, and always made sure to make plans when we were home in Cleveland at the same time. I'm so glad our friendship has stayed this strong over the years.

Rachie, I know you have a really exciting year ahead and I hope all your birthday wishes come true. I can't wait to hear about all your adventures and know that I would love for you to come visit me in LA any time! I wish I had some of my high school photos scanned in so I could include some pics of us at age 14, but these from our more recent adventures will have to do:

summer '10 in NYC - love this photo of us

laughing so hard we cried with another HS friend

summer '08 (?) in NYC

with more HS friends - not sure which year this pic was taken in, but I still had blonde highlights so it must have been a long time ago!

Happy belated birthday Rachie!

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I met Jina's boyfriend Dave and his roommate Aaron in late 2005 / early 2006. They lived down the hall from me when I lived in an apartment in Hollywood. Jina moved in a while later and upon learning that she loved all things purple and sparkly I knew instantly we would be friends. Our respective leases expired at the same time and the four of us decided to find a house together. We moved into the Crest Castle in March of 2009, and since then my friendship with Jina has become one of the most important in my life.

Together we've survived earthquakes a foreclosure (not us, but the owners of the Castle) and a pretty devastating break-in. She's my morning work-out partner and my evening TV buddy (the boys join us for the latter of course). We love going to tea. I know I can always discuss the latest teen novel / movie / show with her. She'll almost always be on my "side" if I say it's just too cold in the house. She respects my love for Funfetti.

Jina, you're such a fantastic woman (and Auntie!) and you deserve all the happiness life brings you. I hope this coming year is just as exciting for you as the past one.