Robin Joy

My friend Robin died on Monday. She and I had been classmates from kindergarten through 8th grade. In middle school I considered her one of my closest friends.

She was the first person I knew to join in my Hanson obsession. Her love of HITZ later morphed into an infatuation with the Dave Matthews Band, and as his lyrics suggest, "Celebrate we will, cuz life is short but sweet for certain." Robin had a short but sweet life, and her death made me think about the memories I shared with her and want celebrate them.

My sense of humor was born out of time spent with Robin. Like me, she took great pleasure in laughing at bodily functions. In sixth grade, we made up a song to the tune of "Let it Snow" called "Let it Spew" and by the end of the year, we had many of our classmates singing "All that vomit is flying out of your mouth let it spew let it spew let it spew."

That same year we also nicknamed any girl who had her period a "Dotty." I was the second girl in the class to become a Dotty and was teased (in fun) by Robin and our friends whenever I wore red, as it was interpreted to be indicative of my Dotty status.

In Seventh Grade we filmed a video for a history class, and neglected to delete the final scene of me and Robin and my brother dancing in fits of hysterics as I cleaned up a puddle of pee that my late doggy Misty had left at the top of the stairs. We were graded on this project, which we showed to the entire class, including that final scene. A!

On the last day of that history class, Robin and I convinced our teacher to play the MMMBop music video in front of our whole class. We both sat on the edge of our seats, salivating at the sight of Taylor playing keyboards in front of a giant pansy as the rest of our class groaned out of boredom and possibly disgust.

We both had a crush on David S. We called him Lobster because he used to rest his head on his hands, leaving giant red marks all over his face. When AOL was first released, we made our screennames Lobgrl1 and Lobgirl2 in honor of our mutual crush. (And yes, I was the one that found it necessary to engage in computer speak and omit the "i" in "girl.")

Robin was also one of my friends who was responsible for assigning me the role of "Purdue Mentor" in their oh-so-creative game of "Purdue World" where a bunch of chickens with human brains tried to take over the world in order to obtain everlasting youth and control of an oldies radio station. My role as the mentor was to be the singular character with a human body and a chicken brain. I had to teach the others how to behave like a chicken. And I also began to enjoy being the butt of the joke, as long as it was in fun.

More recently, after reading Robin's blog, I was inspired to start my own.

This post is getting super long, so I'll cut it off. But Robin, may you rest in peace. I am thankful for all of the ways you have touched my life and all the memories you shared with me.