BFF?

I mean. That's what I always thought!


I remember us as jolly companions - Condo and I. We'd spend our Saturdays at her house watching He-Man. Her father always told her she must learn to be "twice as good". So we were never, ever, allowed to watch She-Ra. He also used to say that: "We sing 'Hymns' in church and not 'Hers', because they all end in 'Amen' and not 'Awomen'..." I always laughed really hard at that one. Once, I think, I overheard him say this of moustaches: "Why cultivate on the face - what grows wild on the ass?". He was a good Reverend.

Well, I remember looking at Condo, and I just knew. I always knew that she would grow up to be, as the advertisement has always suggested, WHO she wanted to be.

( ...with a gown for every occassion!)


This is NOT a message from Mattel.


On Thursdays, after school, she would make me act out scenes with her from her favorite Russian novels. If she was feeling generous, then I got to play the "Officer". We would start at opposing ends of the room and then hurl ourselves forward in direct line, toward each other. She liked to grunt once and then shout out: "Punish France, ignore Germany, and forgive Russia." But, when I would end up bluff-bombed, bruised, and pleading for her to stop shouldering me - she would yell that the Officer was supposed to "JUST IGNORE" her.


We did have to pretend to like her piano playing, long after we all realized she wasn't ever going to go pro.





How I did adore her! There wasn't a mission she couldn't accomplish! There wasn't a fact she couldn't swallow whole! Afterall - Condoleeza was rumored to know the GNP, be able to spell it longitudinally, and account for every grain of sand in all of Ancient Mesopotamia - by the time she was three!
By George!

Still.


I never, ever, thought she would end up like this...war gowns and ALL!