Kickin' It Pink With Kristyn: In memory of my dear friend Cristie

One year ago today, my friend Cristie and I completed the first 5k for me after 8 rounds of chemo and multiple surgeries. Little did I know this would be our last 5k together. Granted, we could have done more throughout the year but that’s beside the point! Cristie got me into running (Bobby tried, Cristie succeeded). One year she made me do the Crescent City Classic which is a 10k. When I told my Oregon friends I ran that race they surprised me by telling me they signed me up for a half marathon, so I had to train. I started running on the treadmill but Cristie explained to me how boring that is and boy was she right! Just ask Nicole who had to do her long run day (19 miles?) on a treadmill (because of the OR winter weather) while training for the Boston Marathon. Cristie would get me to go run at the park. We’d do 2 mile runs, 4 mile runs, 2 mile organized Free For All runs (with beer at the end!), 5k’s on Fridays, 5k’s on Saturdays, The Turkey Day Run (she made me run the entire 5 miles once. I’ve done it since but man, Cristie you kicked my butt!) We even put our workout gear on and showed up at the end of Mardi Gras ½ marathon one time, just to hang out! I often wanted to walk instead of run but she told me that took too long. Too long to finish and too long to get to the beer J

During my first chemo stint Cristie would call me every other day to see how I was doing. At first I thought to myself, why does she keep calling me for no reason?!?! Then I realized, that was Cristie’s way of checking on me, showing she cared and touching base. Once I realized that I didn’t question her reasoning, I was just happy to hear from her. I found out this weekend, that was her style. She “randomly” checked on so many people.

I didn’t realize how much Cristie and I did together until Tuesday, March 4^th. I got a call at 10:50am that Cristie had passed away. Cristie took her own life. Cristie rarely complained about anything. I know she dealt with a lot throughout her life but she always had a smile on her face and was there to cheer us all on. We are all confused.

I’ve been reflecting ever since that call. Cristie came to Micah’s birthday party and was so excited to give him the gift she found for him. She found a camera that she knew he’d love because he was having fun taking pictures with her camera at the Race for the Cure in October. I started looking at pictures of Cristie and me. Oh my did we do a lot! We worked together for 3 years. We went to Wednesday at the Square together, worked out together, we ate Taco Salads from the Purple Cactus on Fridays together. We went to French Quarter Fest, Jazz Fest, the Irish Channel Parade, Mardi Gras parades, St Patrick’s Day parades, celebrated birthdays, New Year’s Eve, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Easter and probably some fake holidays we made up. We spent one Father’s Day in baby pools in my backyard and called ourselves the Housewives of Metry. Our husbands were working but we still celebrated with our girlfriends. I know her family, she knew mine. She called my mom “Mom Carly.” She was so excited for me to be pregnant she bought Micah a onesie well before I was showing. She came to my bachelorette party in Las Vegas and planned another one for me in New Orleans (with the help of a few of our other friends). I planned her bachelorette party and Bobby and I went to her wedding in Las Vegas. As you can tell, we did a lot of things together!

I love Cristie. And I miss her so much. I’m going to miss her checking in on me and I’m going to miss that she would offer to bring dinner but we all know her husband made it J Same with the 7-layer bean dips she would bring to parties. She did make a mean Velveta-Rotel cheese dip though!

I’ve been feeling decent in terms of my chemo. My side effects have been mild. My next treatment is this Thursday and I’m hoping to continue feeling decent. I’ve decided to register for a 5k at the end of the month. I don’t want to say it’s in honor of Cristie because I don’t want to not succeed or get sick and not feel like running and feel like I let her down. But I will use my memories of her to keep me going. She always ran faster than me so I’ll just keep going, trying to catch her and one day I will!

Cristie and Micah.