9.7.11

a highly nostalgic friend-love-letter about nicole

Nicole and I met in 7th grade. She was new at our school, but immediately established herself as one of the smartest kids in our class. She wanted to be a pediatrician. I wanted to make movies. (She is now going to medical school; I make exclusively terrible movies.)
Some might have thought she befriended me because she didn’t know how uncool I was – nobody had warned her! But the truth is, unpopularity and bad haircuts never mattered to Nicole. She gave everyone a chance. Eventually our misfit friends formed a close group consisting of really brainy girls who ate lunch in the math teacher’s classroom and laughed a lot and talked about books and did lots of extra credit assignments. 
She lived far away in a surreal little company town called Moccasin. I spent lots of summers with Nicole in that shoe-named place. I was fascinated by the mysterious town, its abandoned factory, Nicole's only-child lifestyle, her incredibly clean house. (The only messy thing about it was the sound of the clocks. They had tons of antique clocks, all slightly off sync, and each hour was marked by a strange and overwhelming flurry of chimes.)
In between hours of bad television and reading girly magazines, we would hunt for crawdads, spy on her neighbors, practice synchronized swimming in the pool. At night we would sneak off to the huge, vacant baseball field and run around in our underwear in the sprinklers, or to walk up the hillside and climb on the massive concrete blocks which connected the enormous water pipes that brought water down to the turbines. 


I feel so lucky to know Nicole. She is incredibly kind and caring and hilarious and determined and growing up with her was just really fucking fun

4 comments:

  1. Gorgeous illustration! Is that ink or watercolor?

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  2. thanks! i did a base ink wash then watercolor. ive been getting pretty into dr. martins http://www.dickblick.com/products/dr-ph-martins-radiant-concentrated-individual-watercolors/

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  3. I LOVE YOU!!! :)


    I also love your painting. I can't wait to find the perfect spot for it in my new place

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