Lisa and I have been friends since 7th grade, which I guess would have made the year 1992. She and I met through Amber, and it didn't take long for the three of us to become referred to as "The Three Musketeers." The three of us were always together, before school, on the bus, at lunch, after school...you get the picture I'm sure. Most weekends were spent at eachothers houses or various members of our families who were willing to have us. I remember staying over at Aunt Janet's watching Steven King's "IT" sucking down Mrs. Grass's chicken noodle soup and copius amounts of Mt Dew. There were one or two summers spent at my Grandparents cabin up at Higgin's Lake, of course there were a few stay overs at Lisa's Grandparents, many weekends at Bob and Jackie's trailer in the Delhi park, and countless nights spent at Amber's trailer and the house on Holt St in Mason. Lisa and I made it through driver's ed and a year and a semester of High school together before I moved to Ashland City with my parents. Lisa was one of the few people who kept close contact with me after I had moved, and she eventually came down to live with me. It became aparent after one week of living together that she and I had really grown up and apart over the past 3 years, I barely recognized her, and she had no idea what to think of me. 3 months later I moved back to Michigan, but true to Lisa's form, she stuck it out for the long haul, and I couldn't admire or respect her more for that decision. Obviously, because I had ditched her in Tennessee she wasn't happy with me for quite some time (and rightly so), its for this reason that the details of the six years where we had hardly any contact are something I know little about but I am sure Amy can fill you in on them. I was working at the University of Florida, and living with Amber in Gainesville when we recieved the most exciting email of our lives...It was December 22 2005. Our missing Musketeer!! I almost fell out of my chair as I screamed in my quiet little office, "Oh my Gosh it's Lisa!!! I've got to call Amber!!!" Immediatly I grabbed my cellphone, totally unconcerned with the consequences of using it while still on the clock, "Am, quick, what are you doing?! Are you home!? Good, go to the computer, and log on to Myspace...no I can't tell you, you have to see it to believe it, you will never in a million years guess who sent us a message...no its not Joe Allen...just check your inbox Am, you will not be disappointed..." And as she did so, I held the phone a foot away from ear as she screamed with the same amount of glee as me, "OH MY GOSH!! IT'S LISA!!! AAAAAHHHHHH!! Holy Crap!! This is AWESOME!!!" To say that we were excited was quite the understatement, but that was just a testiment to the impact Lisa had had on our lives. The three of us hadn't spoken in a little over six years, but she was a constant in our lives, we always thought of her, wondered about her, in truth it was like Lisa had never left, her presence was forever with us. When I got home from work that evening I found Amber in her LazyBoy with the biggest grin I'd seen in awhile, and her phone glued to her ear, "Guess who I'm talking to?" Without hesitation my face lit up with the same ear to ear grin, "Guess what, its my turn to talk to Lisa." January 2 2006, is a Red Letter Day. Lisa, Amber, and I were together for the first time in years. All day as we walked around Univeral Studios, it was as if we were 15 again. There was nothing but joy and laughter all around. We rode first car on every rollercoaster ride, we pointed out hot guys all day, and the three of us were exactly as we had remembered, bright, shining and carefree. Lisa was still the daredevil, she and I took one look at the Sling Shot Ride, and knew it was now or never. It was 6 G's of force, 425 ft in the air, and we rode it in the middle of the night. I will never forget the look of pure joy on Lisa's face, and the almost shed tears as we shouted how great we thought it was that we got to experience swinging through the air together. This moment was relived a few months later when Lisa and I went skydiving. The date was June 3 2006. There aren't words enough to describe the thrill of jumping out of plane 13,500 ft with your best friend, just check out the posted pictures of Lisa and you'll have all the description you'll need. Lisa is the only person I know who can take a simple vacation in Central America and turn it into the an epic adventure. We'd only be in country for 48 hrs when our kidney's had been threatned by an angry German and she'd been robbed, not to mention the hassle of even getting our room that she had reserved ahead of time, only the girl had no idea what we were talking about, and our translator wasn't getting our point across, and that doesn't even cover the ordeal we went through at the Miami airport, Lisa almost didn't make it out of that forsaken place. Aren't you exhausted just reading about it!? Try living it for 6 weeks!! But seriously, I wouldn't trade one second of this trip, and I would never, ever have wanted to do it with anyone but Lisa. She and I explored the jungle and Mayan Ruins of Tikal Guatemala, Traci opted for the paid tour, Lisa and I winged it, which of course ment we got lost two minutes into the deal, and we spent the rest of the day going opposite of everyone else in the National Park. You may think I'm exaggerating, but I assure you, I am not, and we both agreed that our way was much better. Lisa, Traci, and I did the Canopy Tour of Tikal, which is basically swinging through the tops of trees like Tarzan. We were given gloves, a harness, and then we zipped across cables from tree to tree screaming with glee! Our next big adventure was the active Volcano Pacaya. It had erupted just 7 days prior to our climb, so there was still lava flowing in some areas. Lisa and I almost gave up two minutes into the deal, our calves we burning, we were wheezing, and the Fifty something couple from our tour was exhausting us further as they pretty much jogged up the volcano like it was something they did everyday...for fun. Lisa was infuriating and hysterical as she kept repeating, "I can't believe it's strait up, like the path never levels off, I really can't believe it's strait up all the way..." Finally I gasped, "That's why they call it climbing Lis," she looked at me with a "I'm not stupid" type squint, and said, "Yeah, but really, strait up, the whole way? I need a cigarette, let's stop right quick." Eventually Lisa and I found ourselves on our own again, we'd gotten caught up in the altitude and how sharp and contrasting the colors were. We were surrouned by charcoal blacks and brilliant emerald greens...and then we came to an impass. We could see people off in the distance, but we couldn't see a sure path to the top of the volcano, where they all were. You see there was something obstrucing the path...a field of molten lava. She and I stood there waying the pros and cons of our next brilliant move...we really wanted to see the top of the volcano, but we still weren't convinced that crossing this steaming field was how they got there, BUT we didn't see any other way either...another group came upon us at this point, and pretty much came to the same conclusion, the only way to get from point A to point B was across the lava, Lisa and I had our hands poised over the lava, and were about to push ourselves up on the lava when there were shouts and whistles coming from all around us. Our guide and Traci had caught up and were behind us, and about ten workers were gesturing from some trees in the distance...every single one of them was pointing to the path that we had lost. Lisa and I couldn't help but laugh, we had almost set ourselves on fire just to get to the top of the volcano. There is a picture that captures a thousand words of Lisa and I conquering Pacaya, so I'm not even going to try describe it, I wouldn't do it justice. Our next escapade came in Semuc Champey. We explored and climbed our way through a dark cave in our bathing suits armed with a wax candle and a flashlight. There were moments of total darkness, and grunts of terror as we made our way across rope bridges and incredibly flimsy ladders that were held together by old rope and black electric tape. Lisa evermore gusty than I, climbed ten feet up the wall of the cave and jumped into a pool that coulndn't have been more than seven feet in diameter. She cut her foot on a rock and called me a wuss for not following suit. It was much to her surprise then later when I joined Lisa on the edge of the 40 ft bridge to jump off into the River Cahabon. This was such a rush and thrill that we did it twice. There were so many other moments in this trip, our jaunt in a rental across most of Belize (I do believe we only missed one, small and minute corner of the map), getting the car gassed up and delievered by the mayor of Punta Gorda, meeting Ron, our most gracious host and owner of Popeye's in Caye Caulker on the boat shuttle to Punta Gorda, the Belize Zoo, a night spent in a tree house, Jurassic Park sized plants and shrubs, Scuba school in Utila Honduras, getting dropped off at the border of Guatemala and Honduras and left to wait for a bus we weren't quite positive was actually going to show up... Life with Lisa was never dull or boring, and I will cherish this adventure with my best friend for the remainder of my days. There won't be a day that goes by that I won't miss her, but if I learned anything from Lisa, its this, to live in the moment, and fill your days with the ones you adore, & love what you do with that time.