Running for Donuts
My freshman year of college was an exciting one, but along with the new workload I also packed on quite a bit of weight eating out of vending machines. And I HATE exercise. But Chelsea took me on as a project. (I think she genuinely wanted to help me out, but the fact that she let me 3rd wheel on many of her dates was probably motivation enough. I needed a date of my own.) So she would drag me out of bed to run in the Country Club in the morning. I would ask to go back continually telling her I was done, but she just kept pushing me reminding me of the chocolate cake donuts her dad was probably bringing home as we ran. Those runs were always followed by CocoaMotion and cake donuts, but she helped me balance them out with a little exercise.
27 Palace Court
I will always cherish my last few months with Chelsea in London. I can't narrow down that experience to one memory but it's more a collage of Pride and Prejudice, Rijen, marchin' out on Tina's shepherds pie, runs in Hyde Park, sliding down the lions in Trafalgar Square, the London Eye, ditching Oscar Wilde for Rock Style, hangin in the Ringers' flat, wandering the streets of foggy Edinburgh in search of the creepy church we called home, the Spice Girls, kitchen crew shenanigans, Camden market, and lots and lots of Chocolate!
That Bird could EAT
I know if you looked at Chelsea's bird-like frame you never would have guessed it, but she could eat with the best of them! I remember one particular time when I had somehow gotten us into an extremely awkward double blind date. We ended up at Training Table for dinner and as the food arrived Chelsea was handed her sandwich first. Our dates continued handing out sandwiches for the large group and after a few minutes her date looked over to Chelsea. Her plate was empty. He was shocked and convinced that she had hidden it somewhere, but she grinned and told him that she was just hungry and it was gone. I love a girl that can eat and Chelsea was that girl.
Dave Jones!
It was an election night and Karen was heading to what should have been a celebratory party for the new Mayor Dave Jones. She invited Chel, Whit and I to come and we agreed, but only after Chelsea decided she would wear Shirley's wig that was for some reason at the Hales. She looked hillarious, and played the part well. She waved at all passers-by and made us all giggle the whole way to the party. Well, we arrived and while parking the car Karen got the bad news that Dave had lost by only a few votes! She was distraught to say the least and kept wailing "Dave Jones, oh Dave Jones!" After some awkward silence I said... "Wow, and Whit didn't even vote." (Sorry Whit!) We decided to skip the party and after some consolation from Shirley-Chel, in full character, we had Karen laughing again in no time.
Anything but Normal
I remember one weekend night in highschool we were hanging out at Em C's (as we usually did) and discussing what a great group we had. We talked about how much we loved each other but then it quickly moved into how great we were and how much more normal we were than other teenagers we knew. I will never forget what Chelsea said that night. "Speak for yourselves, don't you ever call me normal! Normal is SO boring, I hope no one ever calls me normal." I was so ashamed at that moment. Chelsea had brought it all back into perspective as she often did (usually more subtly). She was anything but normal, she was extraordinary.
As is evident by the countless memories shared about Chelsea's character, she was one of a kind. She was an enigma. She was confident, kind, non-judgmental, giving and unselfish. Yet she was fun, silly, and even a bit wreckless. She taught us life lessons that we had no idea we were learning until she was gone and we went to deal with real life without her. There are very few people that love me as unconditionally and perfectly as Chelsea did. I will love her for that always, and miss her like crazy. I so look forward to the day that I have the privilege of seeing her beautiful smile again and receiving one of her infamous hugs.
Ange
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