We are going to be friends

Now that we've established how cool being a babysitter at age 24 is, I have an awesome babysitting story. I got a new (client, but my friends tease me for calling them clients so I'll say) family last week, and went to meet them for the first time Friday. I kind of hate meeting a new family, it's like a first date and once on a first date I hid behind a buffet table until the guy thought I was lost and wandered off.

This family had an 11-year-old girl. As I biked to their house I thought about what I was like at 11, just for reference. I was weird at 11. I know a lot of kids and I have yet to meet one who is as weird as I was as a child. All the kids I babysit are put-together, own iPhones, avoid carbs, and are a bit too cool for school. Sometimes too too cool for school in my opinion. Until Friday when I met the best 11-year-old in the world.

She answered the door wearing a shirt with a picture of a cow holding a loaf of bread and it said "Paris." I had that shirt when I was little. I wore it with a "Got Milk?" hat because I felt like they went together.

"Do you like chocolate?" she asked.

I didn't have to answer. As soon as we made eye contact both of us knew that we had finally met our best friend, a person who was exactly like us in every way.

Alright I did answer. I love chocolate.

But this girl has the most beautiful off-kilter sometimes-hilarious-sometimes-hopelessly-bizarre sense of humor. She has hair so thick it goes past her shoulders. She painted a life-size portrait of Obama and hung it over her desk. She is obsessed with baseball. She speaks French. "Why don't we decorate the kitchen like it's a café and invent every kind of hot chocolate we can think of?" she asked.

While watching her cat pee in the yard she sighed and announced "I pretty much live in denim." Not because it was relevant. Just because she had a thought and felt like she needed to say it. Where have you been all my life, 11-year-old girl? Love has a name, and it won't be revealed so as not to put any children in danger.

But I love this girl.

She is exactly like I was at age 11, and exactly how I guess I still am except now I'm slightly taller. She times her showers. Have you ever met anyone besides me who times their showers to see if they can set a personal record every day? I haven't. If you have, I'd like to meet them. I have a shirt with a cow and a loaf of bread on it they can borrow.