Stefanie

First of all, donut day didn't work. We were still screwed and in a bad mood. And I'm £7.50 worse off for it. But now my hair's bright red so I can PMS about it, since redheads allegedly have more of a temper.

Anyway, I didn't forget this series! I was just thinking on who to write about next.

And Stefanie is next.

Stefanie is the overall organiser of Drake Bell's street team. Since a lot of his actual promoters do little to make an impact (I think they're a little disorganised, from what I saw at the show last year), if you do hear any big promotion about Drake, you can be sure Stefanie was the instigator, if not the person telling you about what he's up to (answer until recently: not much. But he's starting to do tour dates again and should be sort of almost finished with the third album soon but don't hold your breath since this has been going on for over a year ...) she's the one with all the information.

When I started going on Drake's forum, just after he had his car accident (I didn't know about it, I was looking for music and first thing I was read 'omfg, car accident!!!0!), Stefanie was one of the first people I remember talking to, her and Cazzie (I miss Cazzie :(). I think I got on better with Stefanie because she was closer to my age. There were a lot of 12 year olds (and one five year old, whose parents typed for her. She got to go on set when they still filmed D&J, which must have made her life) and a lot of mums (Drake's own included). There were only a handful of 18-22's, so I guess it was easier knowing what to say to Stefanie.

After a couple of months, without going into a lot of detail (because there was a lot of detail and when I heard it I was soooooo mad) anyway, after a couple of months Stefanie asked whether I'd want to be one of Drakes UK leaders. I said yes, because I had the time to do it, and although I can be silly and whatnot, I also wasn't going to lose my head over the whole thing - some people do see becoming a street team leader a golden ticket to meeting Drake, since he's not really well known despite all the work he's done.

It went well, I thought. We didn't really have much to do - we've been promised that Drake's coming to the UK, Drake's coming over, since 2006, and it's still not happened yet - but we've done some things, passing out fliers at other gigs, trying to promote his CD's so the amount he gets sold has some gravitas on the decision to come over, a little radio play here or there. We did a meet up August 2006 too, got to know the other UK street teamers a bit (again, parents or kids. Cazzie was there, but she was one of the parents, so I did feel a little like a sore thumb).

And then I got pregnant, and let Stefanie know that since I had no idea what was coming - how could I? - I was going to have to leave the leader post, but I'd still do whatever promotion needed doing, whenever I could. We stayed in touch while I was getting used to boy, mainly on myspace, and when I got it, facebook.

And once I got sick, and had all the free time to get better, I went back to the DBST (as we call it). I missed it. I mean, I recognised few people, there was only one Brit left I recognised, but Stefanie was still there, putting up with it all. And when I sent an email asking to be leader for the UK again, she said sure, welcome back.

That's what I like best about Stefanie. She's pretty understanding about people's situations, and although she may not believe it, she's pretty patient. She's so loyal too - she gets a lot of crap for what she does (from Drake's fans, not anyone laughing at us for being Drake's fans) and yet she still puts up with it all. I know some days she feels she can't cope any more with the repetitive questions and those fans who are so excitable nothing goes in, but she's one of the strongest women I know. She's also not afraid to say what she thinks, so if someone was really pushing her buttons, she'll let you know. She's pretty honest in that respect too, with her emotions as well as with basic facts. I don't like those people who put on fronts, or not many of them.

I got to meet her when I was in New York/Atlantic last year with Cat at Drake's gig there, but a)we were being silly from jet lag and b)I was a little shy. So even though the whole gig we were right by each other, we didn't talk until the end :( that was one weird show ... but if I got to do it again, maybe I'd grow a pair of balls? And also, not book the car for ridiculous o'clock like I did.

Jodie

Continuing my 'why I love my friends' posts (they'll be intermittent, but I'll try and get through everyone) since I'm once again between books ... Jodie.

I've known Jodie for about 7/8 years now, roughly? Again from the internet. We met properly 6 years ago, at Thorpe Park - about 20 of us all went. It was the first thing I'd ever organised and I fell in love with organising trips after that ...

I thought we gelled right away. We'd always been able to talk online, but sometimes the internet is a completely different ballpark to real life. I've met friends online before and not known what to say to them, really (Starr, Stefanie, Jessica ...) but with Jodie, it was different. We kept squaring up to each other, pretend fighting, so everyone thought we hated each other, so we kept doing it to wind other people up. We went on 'X: no way out' and when we came off, there were steam jets over the path ... so we pretended we were blinded by it. We got a few odd looks off people who weren't in our group, but that's just what we're like together.

We've gone through so many things together, even though we don't live near each other (strangely, though we're probably geographically closer, I can get to our friend Cat's house in half the time it would take me to reach Jodie) - A week in Southend, various gigs, trips to London, stalking Dougie from mcfly on a train (accidentally. He happened to be going to Nottingham when we were going to Luton. We actually tried not to get on the train after him, found we were in first class, doubled back to the first cheapo seats, sat down and there he was across the aisle. Best half hour EVER), my trips from my uni to hers (especially when I started going out with her housemate. Which I blatantly only did to see her every other week), train hair, train surfing, TITWANK, mcfans, team pokage, Thunderbirds, Mcfly gigs, Back-To-Front comma's (I talk in my sleep. Jodie tells me what I say in the morning), Margarita's spilt in Chiquito's, Frankie and Benny's, Barbeque Chicken, endless talks on whether Chinese or Italian food should come second to Mexican, dud fireworks, drunken Rock Band, chocolate and New Look and the latest Me2You/My Blue Nose friend paraphenalia.

I can't imagine life without Jodie now. I don't know how I survived High School without her, or Cat, Charli and Kelly for that matter. If I have news, she's the first person I try and tell. Of all my best friends, I'm probably closest to Jodie (and here's where I find out, actually, Jodie's fond of me but wouldn't go that far, lol), not to be offensive to Kelly, Cat or Charli ... I just find I have a little more in common with Jodie. Maybe it's the age thing, since there's 7 months between me and Jodie, rather than almost 3&1/2 years like there is between me and Cat.

I just hope in ten years time, I get to say that all four girls are still my best friends.