The first time I meet Robin was during conference time, the night Kristen Lasher accidentally set her room on fire. I remember standing in the windows watching Titsworth burn eating popcorn while joking with Jenny, Robin and Hannah. Most of the time a dorm burning would be cause for alarm during conference time it was a welcome distraction After that night there would be snow coladas, consuming cultures class, and the great tradition of coming back from c.c. class eating morning star farm products and watching that seventies show. We quickly escalated dorm burning down peanut gallery friends to 24-7 friends. I'll always remember the late night sing alongs when "the band" would have to pack it up at 3 am. Robin has always been one of the most loyal, hilarious, opinionated people I know. It makes me happy to know that there is a generation of kids developing under her tutelage. Plus she always calls me back because she's got my tattoo on her arm.

Before I met Abby my former roommate Shan would always mention her and how if we meet we'd be best friends. Let's just say Shan is more often than not right and on this front he was spot on. When my old boss needed to hire someone to make some knit samples I took it as my chance to get to know Abby and offered her up as a possibility since I knew she was knitter and available. We spent the first couple of days working late together, trying on clothes, and gossiping about our lives. That Friday night she invited me over to her apartment for Margaritas and to go to her friend's concert. All sorts of silliness ensued and I spent the night and many after that I pretty much moved into the McKibben Street lofts with her for the next few months. We started designing a line of accessories together and both eventually quit or jobs to pursue our own dreams. Even though our accessories line was short lived Abby is one of the few people I could ever imagine working with she's creative, driven, independent, loyal, passionate and hilarious on top of being one of my closest friends.

If you had told me on my first day of college that sitting in the circle of people who lived on my hall that my plutonic life partner was in that group I probably wouldn't have believed you. Jenny and I lived with in 20 feet of each other for the next six years whether it be in Garrison, Rothschild, Slum Castle in the Bronx, with crazy landlords Todor and Dora on McGorlick or finally in the Polish Mob place on Sutton Street. We have now managed to give ourselves a generous three-block radius. Part of what makes Jenny and I ideal platonic life partners is that we often act as foil for one other, even though it means Jenny often blows up my spot like nobodies business.

As my partner in crime, so many nights come to mind; from the time we went to the wrong house party and became the lives of that party, to fleeing a superbowl party in a cab after unleashing a whole bunch of drama we had nothing to do with. One of the things I miss most about living with Jenny is recapping last nights events as one us inevitably had to reach for the "I said what?!" mug. All crazy antics aside, Jenny is one of the most caring, loyal, passionate, smart and hilarious people I know and I'm just thankful the SLC housing guru's had the foresight to put us on the same hall.

One summer's night in 1997 I met Dana on Sarah Cullen's trampoline. She was we were both 16 at the time and I don't exactly remember what transpired that night to make Dana appear but I just know that after that she seemed to permanently have shotgun in Svenny aka my 1977 Yellow VW Bus. Around this time I also pretty much took up residence at here house when I wasn't at Kent. When I was at Kent I was most likely on the phone with Dana, both of us had the phone bills to prove it. Dana and I have always been troublemakers together, causing scenes in various locations, harassing dairy barn employees picking up hitchhiking children only to scare the bejeseus out of them and have them request to be let out two blocks later. Also Dana is the only person who has ever asked me to a formal dance. We made a very good-looking couple at her graduation dance.

I can't really remember what life was like before Gilly but I'm sure it must have been a lonely 3 months with out the other member of the dynamic duo Porkchop and Powers. I can't even begin to mention all the anecdotes and private jokes we have because they would quite literally fill a book. Last summer's Christy and Gilly "this is your life" tour that we took up to Camp Wawenock, starting in Port Washington and then passing SLC, Kent, Taft, Boston, and ending in Maine certainly proved that. I remember after the first time Colin met Gilly he remarked how he couldn't get a word in edgewise between us because we're like sisters and who speak our own language. I'm just glad he accepts that Gilly's my eternal seatmate at family meals, because while Colin's been amazing partner the past 5 years I've been seating next to Gilly my entire life and that certainly isn't going to change. If it weren't for Gilly I don't even know who I'd be.

Susanna moved into the room across the hall in the middle of the fall of 1998. I was curious as to who this super cool new girl was but I was also a socially inept Sarah Lawrence first year student. As fate would have it one day after a bunch of us Garrison E girls were hanging out when Susanna invited me and Amanda to come back to her room to cut up fashion magazines and make collages (an activity I wish happens more often). I was really excited but a little bit nervous because I had wanted to hang out with both Sus and Amanda for a while but figured it would be cool since they must hang out all the time. It was later revealed that all of us had the same thoughts about the other two.

Susanna was the big sister I wanted to be, she was cool, smart, adorable, and didn't suffer fools. I'm glad I got to be her cracked out fieldtrip buddy at our first rave and remember all my visits to her place on 7th street and then Charlotte. Plus, her and Hutch were the first couple that made believe real love was possible for people our age. Also I probably never would have come back from Australia the first time had Susanna not bought me a ticket to see Radiohead.

Mel was the ridiculous cute fashionable quiet girl in about half of my classes my first semester of grad school. Being shy myself it wasn't until one of Photoshop crits we started talking, we're on top of looking awesome her work was stunning and reminded me of Gregory Crewdson. Mel and I started to get to know each other right before Colin moved to Sydney and became the first person to really get to know both Colin and I as a couple as well as individuals. We spent many a night at the 3 Weeds, Gaslight and Hollywood and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have made it through my Masters without her. We've been lucky to have her come visit in NYC and I'll never forget visiting her in Barbados. Mel is one of the sweetest, funniest and cleverest people you can meet. Oh and she's a ridiculously talented painter to boot.

My older brother Scott¹ has known me since the beginning, and I'm happy to have kept a close relationship with him through all these years. We may have had some fights growing up, such as the wall-scarring battle of flying G.I. Joes, but overall, he was a good big brother to me. After I moved away to college in Denton, Texas, we lived together again again in a great little blue house on Avenue B for many years. People still rember how much fun they had at our place to this day. (We had one or two parties where people had a fun time.) Scott has helped develop my love of music, has pushed my fashion sense beyond Carhart jeans and in many ways refined me into the person that I am today. Thanks brother.

Without Eric, an close Philmont comparde, I may have never ended up living in New York. After college, I went on a road trip to Arizona, in a somewhat circuitous manner. I gave him a call from a remote gas station outside of Raton, New Mexico, pretty much the middle of nowhere. He said that he was moving to Brooklyn and was wondering if I wanted to be his roommate. I took him up on that offer and a few months later we were on our New York adventure. Through happy times and dark times we had each other to get us through the day. He helps me be true to myself and he always reminds me of the joy that there is in every day.

Kirk has the rare ability to get people to open up and share with him the thoughts on their mind, and people love that. From game night to New Years Eve celebrations, Kirk is on top of the list of people I enjoy hanging out with. Always kind and welcoming, Kirk has this great ability to attract interesting and smart people into his orbit and keep them around. Even though he now lives in Washington D.C., his New York circle of friends lives on together.

Colin: If Alaska was filled population of Jimmy's, we would have all visited there by now. Jimmy is one of the few friends I know who is as comfortable in the streets of Brooklyn or avoiding moose out in the last frontier. He is also equal friends to both Christy and I as individuals. He brings out my creativity whenever we hang out, he inspires me to be more artistic and draw little graphic novels or participate in the idiotarod, a shoping race mushed not by dogs, but by friends around New York were the goal is to not win, but to look silly and consume beers.

Christy: I meet Jimmy when he was a baby faced first year at SLC when Hannah and I started hosting our infamous theme party Thursdays. Jimmy was the boy with the megaphone who in truth yelled far louder than the megaphone could amplify. The thing about Jimmy is he has a contagious enthusiasm that often leads to random projects and misadventure. One of my first road trips with Jimmy had us driving up to Vermont so he could win a t-shirt for eating 15 insanely hot chicken wings. An infamous video was made of said voyage and even though Jimmy suffered the results of eating the 15 wings he never did get that t-shirt. There have since been many more road trips, adventures, crazy schemes, studios, and art projects since then but Jimmy's enthusiasm has been constant.

Henry has an amazing ability to charm most everyone he meets. I can't think of a person who does not get along with him. But like all of us, he likes some people more than others, and I am happy to be in his close circle of fiends. We have both been there for each other during some rough patches in our lives, and that is when true friendship appears. Sure our college antics first brought us into friendship, but in New York he reminded me that I always have to be true to myself above what others want from me.

P.J! and I go way back to when I taught people how to backpack in the woods of New Mexico at Philmont. It was P.J! who taught me how to be a teacher, which is more than tying knots and preventing bear attacks, as very useful as those skills are. He taught me what we Philmont Rangers call soft skills, an intangible set of skills that makes you respect others and be true to your heart. He has inspired me to run the New York marathon and be a better person.

Colin: My brother in law to be. When Christy and I first started dating, one of the things I was nervous about was meeting and impressing her big brother. I met him and his wife to be, I was happy and relived to find that we get along great. Any brother who would give a surprise birthday party for his little sister's birthday is someone I really like. And yeah, he also has an awesome wife and two super cute daughters.

Christy: I've been looking up to Charlie since the day I was born; even if he tried to karate chop me in half when my parent's first brought me home from the hospital. I'm sure I followed Charlie around like a puppy dog for most of my childhood. I never really questioned Charlie's authority, which lead to me playing war games and being the tester for various fighting techniques instead of having tea parties or whatever girly activities I could be doing. Besides the occasional round house kick to the head Charlie has always been a very protective big brother, Charlotte and Caitlyn future suitors are going to have plenty to worry about. So much of my fierce sense of loyalty and dealing with things in a straightforward way I attribute to Charlie. On more than one occasion I've met people and had them tell me that it's obvious I grew up with a brother and I always take it as a huge compliment.

If you asked me what the best thing my brother has done in his life it would hands down be marrying Laura and having Charlotte and Caitlyn. Laura is the sweetest sister I could have ever asked for. After 27 years of just having a brother it's been wonderful to have Laura to come to for advice, which has defiantly been crucial with all this planning a wedding business seeing as she's my most reliable source on all this stuff. Charlotte and Caitlyn are the most adorable nieces ever and yes I may be a bit biased. But I guarantee they will steal your heart when you see them coming down the aisle this summer!