Girls I would marry if I could: Christine

(This may or may not be the first of a running series. There are soo many great women that I know, I wanted to start up a running tribute. And why aren't these girls married?)

I first met Christine in the basement of a house we were both moving into. She and Liann (sure to be featured here soon) were painting the family room Red! and Orange! and Pirate's Cove Blue! because, they said, it looked like a dead grandmother's basement, which was a true story. I wasn't sure what I'd gotten myself into, moving into this house with near strangers who were probably listening to something poppy and raucous (Mika was a favorite that year I think) and laughing over some ridicutraumatic story.

I'm not going to lie, Christine's shining cheeriness put me off at first. I spent the first week or two circling warily, walking in and out of Liann and Christine's extended discussions, waiting for some chip or crack to show.

And it still hasn't. And she sucked me in entirely and loved my crotchety soul (something like Anne and Katherine Brooke from Anne of Avonlea) and inspires me all the time.

Christine is magical. And her life is magical. And one of her favorite words is magical. This is what I mean: Christine is impervious to worry. She's certain that everything will work out, and everything works out. She finds jobs and finishes papers and plays plays plays with inspiring abandon, not always certain of the next step, but certain that it will be right and great besides. Christine is willing to wait things out: her dream has been interior design school for as long as I've known her, but she took a little detour to get and excel at a real-person job, and the design school thing, eventually worked out. Christine loves people.

And the coolest thing about Ms. C is that she doesn't take any of this for granted. We talked about this once, about how sometimes people sort of wistfully wish for her life and her spunk and her love--and she said "I work hard for this, every day." And that's something I've never forgotten. Christine decided who she wanted to be, and set about becoming that person. She wanted to be social and happy and blessed, and so she works on it. And it's panned out gorgeously.

So. Christine. (Oh, and she skydives.)(Christine. With someone (Joshua?) from So You Think You Can Dance. Because that's how awesome she is.)