Once there was this girl who wouldn't go and change with the girls in the change room

The infamous Rat has also hit the big 24 today. Most of you already read her blog and let me just confirm that she is as sweet and genuine and funny and sincere in real life as she is on her blog. Sometimes it’s difficult to say the things we really feel about the people we really love because then you run the risk of becoming all corny and sugary but hey, it’s not like I haven’t done any of this already so here goes…

Once there was a girl called Rat and a girl called Penny Lane and they attended kindergarten and junior school together but weren’t really friends or anything. For one thing, we had our respective best friends already and for another thing, Rat’s Mom and her best friend’s Mom were teachers in our junior school and so all the other teachers used to be very nice to these two little Rats (we’ll call them both that for convenience) and they were always left in charge of the class when the teachers had a meeting and so quite naturally they used to be very smug about all this and the rest of us used to bitch about them nicely. Anyway, I started inviting them to my birthday party from the fourth standard onwards and so we sort of started getting along and then in the fifth standard, Rat, Sista T and me were school captains and we ditched class to take care of some younger class in the sports field (I don’t know why we thought we’d get away with that) and boy, was our teacher mad. But it was like our first escapade together and the start of a beautiful (and highly mad) relationship.

In high school, Rat lost all her position of power as a teacher’s daughter :p and was integrated into our larger school gang that had been together since junior school… there were like about 12 of us I think and we had many good times together but we also fought and bitched a lot and by age 13, everyone broke up into smaller groups and it was Rat, Sista T and another girl and me and that was really the beginning of you me and you. I’m not going to get into the story of you me and you again… there are just too many stories and too many memories.

Let it just be known that you couldn’t find a sweeter, more fun individual anywhere… she’s thoughtful and kind and is loved by everyone who knows her. In fact, she’s probably the only one who’s still in touch with every single friend of hers from any point in her life including most of her ex-lovers. And as for me and her, its just one big laugh fest when we’re together and a huge part of that laughing is because of the crazy questions she keeps asking. At one point, we called her Rat Question Mark because she didn’t talk and only asked seemingly irrelevant questions. Anyway, I could go on and on about the madness of Rat but if you’re not lucky enough to know it for yourself, well then, all the more bad luck to you!

Thank you dear Rat for being the best friend a girl could ask for and thank you for keeping me entertained all these years… I know you wanted a poem but it seems I must save something for Christmas and I hope this was satisfactory for now. Have a Happy Happy Birthday and I hope your party rocked. And let's keep working on getting you to Melbourne so we can live happily ever after together ;)

P.S. The title song lyrics have nothing to do with Rat... it was just one of the songs we used to laugh our asses off at when we were younger!