Meeting My Friend Diana... How i Met Your Mother Style

HIMYM- Diana

“I like Hello Kitty best when she is dressed as a panda.” Diana said.

“Wait so you like it best when one cute cartoon animal is dressed as another cute animal? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of the Kitty in Hello Kitty?”

“No, she looks the cutest that way.”

I should explain. Diana was one of the other volunteers in my group and she happened to be one of the only other Asian American volunteers in my training group. We didn't really hang out during training but after, she was placed 40 minutes away from me and we began talking on the phone.

“I'd rather have a black belt than a black Denali” she said. Her ex boyfriend had driven one.

“Thats like a rich black dude's car.” I replied.

“No those are Cadillacs” she snapped back.

She was right, but I didn't want to admit defeat. 

“Cadillacs are for the old school rich black dudes. Denalis are more modern.” 

I laughed. You might be thinking that these types of debates are stupid... and they are but hey what else do you talk about for 3 hours. We had been talking about my nonexistent karate skills and how I could pretend to be a master and even teach a class. I had told Dee that my best friend from home had a black belt. But the back story isnt important. The point is this is how I met and got to know your Aunt Dee.

All in all Dee made a pretty good sister. She was easy to talk to didn't get boring and found me entertaining enough to keep the conversation going even after reaching the 10 minute mark.... 30 times. The current record was 5 hrs. You might think this is the part where I tell you about a friendship that blossomed into a picture perfect romance... Yeah right.

“Why am I still telling you this? You never listen anyway. You should listen to your sister more and actually talk to her other than when you need her to do something. That's the only time you call me these days.”

 She had that scolding big sister voice even though I was older than her.

I should explain. Again. Back in the beginning of my service in Peace Corps I was dating this girl named Natasha and needless to say, it had been a chaotic relationship.

“You have broken up and gotten back together like 4 times and you can't keep doing this to her. Its selfish and unfair.” She was right. Solid sisterly advice.

Diana and I had periods of talking a lot and talking not so much, mostly when I was dating a girl. She didn't like that very much. But in the end I always dialed her number and she always picked up. We spoke on the phone and visited each other a lot during our service. It was nice to have a friend close by in the same G as me. The shared Asian heritage didn't hurt. After our service we both ended up in California and as you know, Dee still scolds me today.

Kids, I guess the point of this story is that in the end, we all develop friendships in different ways and Diana and mine was a product of randomness. All I knew during training was that Diana was confident girl with a bit of kick to her. Then in one week we spoke for more than 15 hours. Now shes like a sister. Whether its black belts or Denalis, or some other ridiculous notion you connect over, make those connections and keep them because you never know and if I didn't, your Aunt Dee might have just been another random girl from Peace Corps.