hey jen-i know there are some inaccuracies in this...for some, my memories were a little fuzzy-like i couldnt remember why we made the cake. was it erics birthday or jims, or did eric come home from arizona or what? not that important i guess. and for others i just had to fudge a little to make my point, but for the character essay i had to write for english, i wrote about you. here it is, i hope you like it!

Nugget run: Pile a group of kids into an inadequately sized vehicle. Head on over to Wendy’s. Order at least ten things of five piece nuggets. Dump them all into a sack. Share among the community. Preferably this all happens after 10 o’clock PM. Who initiated the nugget run? Jenni McCoy.

Ingenious ideas are not her only claim to fame, she was also very spur of the moment. Jenni was my first friend to get her license. She drove me home from school almost every day. I would sit in my seat, bouncing with anticipation, waiting for her to say those few magic words. “Oops! I missed your turn.” Missing my turn meant that she had to go down a few more blocks where my crush conveniently lived. I never knew when she was going to do it, or why she put up with me, but she always did it a couple times a week.

She was often the one to suggest a girls night for the following weekend. She figured, while we were having girls night, why not make a video. Her most famous video idea came with her proposal to create a Barbie soap opera. Jenni’s video library is littered with random home movies created at the spur of the moment. After a sleepless night, she would say “how about an early morning walk?” So we would take one. There’s nothing like a 5 o’clock AM walk to cap off a great night and a great movie creating experience.

Jenni was always the one to go along with my crazy ideas. To promote the activities of the environmental group we both belonged to, I decided to wear a garbage bag to school over my clothes. Jenni didn’t think twice about doing the same. Secret is, I couldn’t do it without her. In our tenth grade class picture, there are the two of us, sitting together at the bottom of the bleachers wearing our bags proudly.

She came to school one day, early in sophomore year sporting an eyebrow ring. I had talked to her the day before-she gave no warning, she had never even suggested the idea of getting that done. When I first saw her I thought it was a fake. Actually I didn’t know what it was at all. She never fails to surprise me.

No idea was ever too crazy for Jenni’s taste. To celebrate our friend Eric’s homecoming from his vacation, Jenni thought, “lets make a cake!” Scrounging together the ingredients we could find, we attempted to make Eric a layer cake. Never mind the fact that neither of us had ever made a layer cake before. We topped the cake off with animal crackers and a homemade red frosting. The whole thing looked like a battlefield. We couldn’t think of a good way to transport the prized cake to Eric’s house, about 6 blocks away until Jenni suggested, “lets take it down there in my wagon!” Together we braved our way down one of the busiest streets in town dressed once again in garbage bags, wheeling the wagon behind us. She never flinched. Never tried to hide herself when a car drove by. Never wanted to turn back.

Sometime in August, 2001, I received an e-mail from Jenni while she was in Hawaii. “Hey Katie! I’ll be back in Minnesota in a couple days! You’ll never guess what I did!” I didn’t bother guessing. I was a little shocked but somehow not too surprised when she came home and showed me her new tattoo. It said “Minoaka,” which means smile in Hawaiian. Which is what being friends with her makes me do.