From high school:

Elise is the sister I never had. We have known each other since we were five, and she is as silly and crazy as I am but in a very responsible sort of way. She also likes to sing along to the radio in the car, something I do all the time but that none of my other friends do. When I was back in KC, we sang "Slide" fifteen bazillion times. She lives in KC with her boyfriend, Al.

Mary is a tall skinny goofy chick that I've been friends with since 7th grade. She left right before our senior year and unfortunately ended up in Tennessee. She's one of those people that I can go for years without seeing and when we get together, it's exactly the same.

Molly is my "bestest" friend. She was also the first one of us to get married, and thus gave my my first maid-of-honor gig. Her husband, Joe, is not the person I would have pictured her with, but they are very happy, so it just shows you what I know.

From college:

Kay is the other sister I never had. We were roomies for a time in college, kind of lost touch after I went to L.A. but picked up our friendship a few years ago and have stayed in close touch ever since. We used to talk nearly every day, but now she has a job at a 60-day treatment facility for teens on drugs, and she works 3 to 11 so we're kind of going through withdrawal. She lives outside of St. Louis with her mother.

Tara is another roomie from college. She's little and cute and we are all insanely jealous because she just bought a house. It's rather funny because she is the most financially irresponsible person next to myself. She is the only one I call when my cable gets shut off because she's the only one who understands.

She's the one I didn't talk to for six months because we were both stubborn and ridiculous. She and I have had the most meaningful discussions about life and religion. She is also the one who goes and does exactly what other people talk about but never do, such as going to live on a kibbutz for three months. If I were going to tell one person on this list about Gracefully Yours, it would be her.

From Los Angeles:

Dana is a fellow Midwesterner who I met while working the mailroom at Cannell. I love her because in the land of La-La, I could always count on her to go with me to get greasy food somewhere. She also used to call me at 7:30 in the morning on Saturdays to go to breakfast before the early movie, and insanely, I would agree and get up. She's now in law school in Boston.

Gavin: Gavin was Dana's roommate for a couple years and also a fellow Cannellite. He and I would frequently attend what we called "Create-Your-Own Double Features", where we would pick a theater with two movies that timed out right and sneak into the second one. He also got really drunk the night he took me to Comic Relief and spent the rest of the time I was in L.A. making it up to me by taking me to concerts. And frankly, I let him.

Laura is just about to finish up law school in California and was really the one who encouraged me to go. We used to work together as assistants at New World, and spent an entire month of December watching My So-Called Life at lunch, because she had worked for that production company and took copies of all the episodes, and I had never seen it.

From law school:

The four of us met during orientation and clicked because we were all 25, had been out of college and in the "real world" for a few years. Susannah is getting married this summer to Trevor, a very nice guy. Claire got married last summer and transferred to another school; it was sad that she left, but as a gift I was able to pull a few strings with my big connections in Los Angeles (okay, my old boss) and get a copy of the Tonight Show where she was featured because she unfortunately married a guy whose last name combined with hers turned out really funny. Lynne studies all the time and is in the top of the class as a result. We had every class together last year but have none together this year, so I don't really see her that much anymore.