As I’ve mentioned before, music has brought a lot of amazing people into my world. While they are all very special to me, one in particular has had a huge impact on my life.

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, and one of my best friends is worried that she won’t get a Valentine from anyone. So, I decided to write her a big Valentine on my blog so she (and the rest of the world) will know how thankful I am for her friendship. 🙂

I met Christy in May 2004. After my first Rock Boat, I became a TRB Message Board junkie. One day, some person called “MemphisQueen” posted a message about coming to Charlotte for a music festival we were having, wanting to know if any other Rock Boaters would be there and would want to meet up. I responded. We met. And a friendship was born.

Megan, Christy, Me & Andrea – May 2004

After that, we traded e-mails regularly, ran into each other on road trips, and started trading notes on artists we liked and didn’t like. Then, Christy sent me her “Best Songs You’ve Never Heard” mix. A tradition was born – for which a lot of you reading this blog should thank her. Christy was the person who inspired me to start making the seasonal mixes!

Along the way, we found out that we had more in common than we knew. Musically, other than sharing a love of a lot of artists in our “circle,” we both loved the Stereophonics – a popular Welsh band that no one in the States really knows and had once upon a time (and okay, still maybe did) loved New Kids on the Block. Non-music wise, we found that we had a lot of same beliefs, and took similar (and sometimes cynical, but hilarious) views of the world.

I often call Christy my “music dealer” to other friends. Because of her, I (and a lot of other people who don’t give her credit for having an insanely good ear) have come to love countless musicians, and one in particular who you all know I adore – Gareth Asher. From his first appearance on a Christy Mix in Summer 2005, I have loved that man’s voice, and because of her, went to see him that fall when he was still with Illbreak. Like me, Christy appreciates music for music. She listens to instruments, dissects lyrics, and studies the way musicians play. When she sends me music and says, “You’ll love this,” I know instantly that I will. When I hear something new that I instantly like, I always buy two copies – one for me, one for Christy.

And because of her, I’ve traveled places and done things that I may not have…I’m not really the adventurous sort. In 2007, for my birthday, Christy convinced me to come down to Atlanta to visit her…and then we promptly got in a car and drove to Birmingham to see Eliot Morris…where she had arranged for another friend of ours to be waiting with a birthday cake for me – and a signed birthday card from her, Katey & Eliot. In 2008, Christy twisted my arm to go with her to Hawaii – her 50th state visit. That same year, for her birthday, I ventured to Boston – and got to see the Stereophonics live from the front row of an itty bitty little club.

Christy & Me in Hawaii, May 2008

Sometimes, I’ll come home from a tough day at work to find little presents in my mailbox from Christy. A random CD. The Flight of the Conchords Season 1. A postcard that says, “We are total fucking badasses.” A memento from some foreign land that she’s visited. Or, I’ll get texts message in the middle of the day (or night, sometimes!) that say the most irreverent and hilarious things…Not suitable for public broadcast on the blog, but jokes that we’ve shared, or snarky comments about something that neither of us might ever say out loud to someone else. Or, she’ll leave me a voicemail. Christy voicemails are unlike voicemails from any other person. They go on for minutes…like you’re on the other end of the line talking back to her. I love it. She will have an entire conversation with herself – and sometimes, you can actually hear her thinking out loud in the middle of the message. It’s priceless and endearing and one of the things I adore about her! I’m sure she has no idea how these little things she does make her friends smile.

Christy understands me more than most people in my life. More often than not, I don’t even have to explain why I feel the way I do. I can, in one sentence, sum up a situation to her and she completely gets what I’m saying. Part of that is that she’s wicked smart, but the other part is that she’s very insightful and intuitive. Our viewpoints aren’t always the same, and sometimes we disagree on things (somewhere along the line, we somehow managed to make an unspoken decision never to talk politics, because we are at opposite ends of the spectrum). But, she always seems to know when I need someone to be on my side and when I need to hear that I’m maybe being a bit bullheaded and that I need to stop being a jerk. It’s hard to find friends like that, especially as you get older.

And so, on this Singles Awareness Day Eve, dearest Christy – I hope you know how special you are to me, and how lucky I am to call you one of my best friends. You are one of a kind and I love ya to bits. Thank you for being such an amazing person and friend. (And for the rest of you, I wish that you all have someone like Christy in your life.)