The Yellow Paperclip Hangs Out in San Diego with My Best Fjupy Womyn Friends

Here's our semi-virtual Fjupy Reunion over the weekend when Trixy and her goober Adrian drove down to San Diego to visit Julia and John. Adrian promised me that I'd be there too so yes, that's "me" in a Manila folder! (You're the coolest, Ade!) My favorite fjupy couples were in the same Starbucks that our fjupy selves were in last April 2005, when we had our first real reunion since our high school graduation in 1997. Click HERE for photos of our daggy days in San Diego.

My Fjupy Friends. The three of us were inseparable in our last two years of high school in Singapore. Nikki, Julia and Trixy. The Poet, the Lover and the Lunatic. The Brain, the Bimbo and the Bitch. Two Filipinas and a Swede (kind of like an Oreo cookie, or so Julia always said). Tres Marias. Three IBH Art students. Three completely different women but the bestest of friends. The Fjupy Womyn.

The what womyn, er women? What kind of f-word is that?! Fjupy (pronounced "fyoopee") is a Swedish-like word we made up to describe... well, anything. It can be a superlative adjective or an expression of delight. It describes that warm, fuzzy feeling you get when your goober gives you a hug. (Julia, what's a goober again? Hee-hee.) Fjupy is when Trix talks with her hands and fingers. It's the essence of all of our D&M (deep and meaningful) conversations. It can also mean, as inspired by Levin (yes, of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, my one true love in high school), that silence which preserves the loftiness of emotions. Fjupy can mean anything we want it to mean. But it captures our fjupy friendship in a way other words simply can't.

See just how fjupy these fjupy womyn are to me? They're a big part of my Yellow Paperclip dream! Here's my photo in the book (thanks for the fun photo, May Ann!)... it came from the original photo above, taken in San Diego last year at Balboa Park. I flew to California with some slight hesitation. I didn't know what to expect. Compared to our high school selves, we were all grown up after eight years apart. Since we were never good at emailing regularly, there were so many separate memories and untold stories between us. My thought bubbles were everywhere. Where were we going to start?! Would it be awkward? How do we catch up with eight years of our lives in just two days together? Will it be just like the good ole fjupy days? It took us a few moments to actually get used to being all together again (we were sitting in the car in silence, just looking at each other and giggling)... but then the fjupy friendship took over and we ended up yakking away until 7 a.m.! Alamak, what was I thinking?! Why was I even worried? We were essentially the same fjupy womyn (albeit rounder, thinner, with longer/shorter hair, married, single), as daggy and D&M-ish and fjupy as ever. It wasn't even a question of catching up on the last eight years, but more of starting anew where we left off and taking our fjupy friendship into the next phase of our lives: NOW.

Trix and Julia, I look forward to our next (virtual or real) fjupy reunion. I love you, womyn!