this is dedicated to and written fondly for rebecca christopher, who is in all ways possible, twenty years old. what does one say about becky? well, that depends very much on who one is. if you're me, you begin like this:

becky was a wee little christopher of a girl when i first met her. we were both subjected to the yellow doom of the school bus, but we didn't sit next to each other. that was because she sat next to rachel martin, and i sat next to rachel laribee. you see? all problems can be blamed on rachels.

well, this game of not speaking ended quite abruptly. i remember the day because of the flowers that were laminating the trees. we were picking and plucking and chaining together these rather remarkably beautiful flowers, when all of a sudden, in the midst of this horticultural merriment, i realized that becky was there as well. in fact, she already knew my friends...better than i did. well shoot. heck. what was i missing out on? on what was i missing out? missing was i out on what?

well, let me tell you.

rebecca christopher is the sort of person you can tell right off the bat has a better idea of what life is like than you do.

rebecca christopher is indelibly bent on doing good.

rebecca christopher is heinously convicted in that which she believes.

rebecca christopher has a brother whose name i can't remember.

rebecca christopher plays a mean trumpet.

rebecca christopher speaks french better than a french version of herself would.

rebecca christopher is getting her freaking own apartment in freaking washington dc.

rebecca christopher knows what a cnidarian is.

rebecca christopher was a man in the speakeasy, as was i, and for that i am forever grateful.

rebecca christopher did not hate me for giving her a plant in a pot that i attempted to paint ten minutes before her birthday party and by so doing got paint everywhere.

rebecca christopher was the host of a party at which was my first experience of admonishment by an officer of the law, and this was during whiffle ball.

rebecca christopher is forever immortalized in the song, "of epic proportions."

rebecca christopher first spotted that hot guy in ocean city, whose name, like her brother's, eludes me, but which i am almost sure was "scruffy." all i know is that he was eating ice cream at 9 in the morning.

rebecca christopher sang loudly, off-key in a metro station with me once.

rebecca christopher is great and wonderful and swell

and missed. because she lives so freaking far away. sheesh.