Time for Another Tribute

Well, it's that time again. What, two days later? Tonight I was able to go and help my friend with a fund-raising dance concert that she organized and choreographed. I was so impressed with what she had done, and I started thinking about what a good friend she's been. So, here's to Tanya:

Admittedly, I practically forced my way into friendship with Tanya. I remember her as the quiet but confident-looking girl who always dressed in a stylish manner. It was not until we spent some time together in San Francisco during our AP Art History class trip that I realized how cool she was. I decided then that I wanted to get to know her. She seemed really reserved, but I talked to her more at school, found out about where she worked, invited her to a few things, etc., and we graduated two months later. For most people in high school, that was the end of contact with me.

I left a note on Tanya's car one morning during the following summer. She thought it was weird, but we kept in touch and continued hanging out. So, in short, we went to the same high school but we weren't really friends until later. We started really hanging out as students at the U. I think that half the things we went to, she only went because of my peer pressure, but she was nice enough to go. In return, I've gotten to go to some really cool events, such as dance concerts, lollicup runs, dim sum dinners, eating soup made by her mom, art shows, and more.

The coolest thing about our friendship is that we can go for what might be considered a long time without talking, but our friendship is just as good when we do talk again.

Tanya is very talented. She tries to downplay her dancing skills, but she is fabulous. Every time I've seen her dance, I was impressed. As my mom put it, "she has clean lines!" I don't know much about dance, but I know she's way good and that she puts her heart into it. I marvel that someone who is so reserved can dance like that. I am really outgoing, but I feel so stupid dancing. (Tanya can testify to this from when she convinced me to go to a hip hop class with her.) I was especially impressed with how professional Tanya seemed with the dance concert put on tonight. Not only did she arrange the whole thing, she started the club that danced in it--"The Contemporary Movement" (the only dance club that is open to non-ballet majors)--and figured out how to secure funding from the U of U.

Another talent of Tanya's is her ability to stay calm and work things out. We can disagree about things or be disappointed with one another, but somehow we aren't afraid to talk about it and work it out. Some people might just say yes to going somewhere because they don't want to offend someone, but either of us can turn down an offer to go somewhere and be understood without having to apologize or explain to the lame extent some require. We're also not afraid to ask each other to do favors, such as saving jpgs of every page of a long article and emailing it to China so a paper can be in on time (although I could only get it sideways). I didn't mind doing it, because I knew she would do the same for me.

Tanya always knows the latest styles. I swear she can pull off anything. Sometimes I wish I could be like that (although once I laughed my head off when she told me her stillettos were sinking into the grass). I know that when I'm not sure if something's cute and acceptable or not, she will know and tell me.

She likes really cool music that I don't even know about until she plays it for me.

Tanya drives us places, since she has a car. I always love to get in her car, because she always has a new story about why it supposedly smells funny (I can't always smell whatever she's talking about, but some of them have been pleasant, like the lotion that melted on the seatbelt). I try to borrow the parentals' cars now and then to give her a break, but I definitely feel torn between guilt for always having Tanya drive, and guilt for borrowing "The Exploder" or the Sequoioa (heaven forbid). So, it's really nice of Tanya to be so generous.

For some reason, Tanya and I like to go to firesides on Sundays (usually at the U Institute). The reason I say "for some reason" is because we always laugh at people there and at weird things that were said. We like to analyze stereotypical Mormon culture and make big plans to leave Utah. One time we drove up to the 'Tute, but both chapels were packed (it was a big-time Mormon celebrity, like Sherri Dew, or a GA, I can't remember). We had a meeting afterwards, so we decided to wait, but waiting got boring. So, we went upstairs to the hall that has windows overlooking the chapel overflow areas. In other words, walking in that hall makes you very visible to people in the darkened gym below. We did c-razy things, such as making rowing motions past the first window, crawling under the second window, and leaping across the third window.

Tanya and I both like traveling, and have made it a goal to do some traveling once per year for the rest of our lives, even if it includes things like our road trip from Virginia to Utah where we slept in the cars in parking lots, ran into racist backwoods Virginians who took a few hours with their family to change our oil in their garage, walked through D.C. at 10 o'clock at night to see anything that was still open, parked in downtown Chicago for 14 bucks, drove through cornfields in the hardest rain we've ever seen, finagled our way into an after-hours tour of Carthage Jail, gave ourselves a tour of Nauvoo with the help of a borrowed guide book and the headlights, risked our health by eating nasty salad and hamburgers that had been bought the day before in order to avoid making a purchase on the Sabbath, and pulled into Salt Lake in time for Tanya to go straight to school without a shower. How many people are willing to travel like that? It was awesome! Think of the story that I would have just told if we had taken our time and stayed in hotels and pulled over in the rain and gone to Jiffy Lube . . .

Tanya and I also share a love of art and culture, whether it be attending a free Rachmaninov concert, or listening to Keane belting at Abravanel Hall, or going to an exhibit of unusual book binding, etc. We have long, interesting conversations about all sorts of things. I can tell her things that I would never dream of telling others.

Well, now I kind of feel bad because my writing in this tribute has been a lot better than the others. So, sorry to the others. (Amy's didn't do her justice.) Also, sorry to Bryce for the long posting. :) On to other things:

Tanya is very intelligent in a broad spectrum of areas. I especially love to talk to her about hot debates going on and hot debates that we think should go on. :) She keeps up with the news. She has very altruistic goals of serving between countries with her international studies experience. I always just wanted to enjoy what I was doing and make money, but she admirably sees needs around the world and wants to do what she can to help.

Tanya is as consistent to me as my family is.