Skip to main content

Follow Friday: A friend in need

This week's Follow Friday is dedicated to one of my oldest friends. I am blessed with many dear people in my life so I hope that nobody feels offended or slighted by this post.

Jamie has been my friend for as long as I can remember. In fact, I don't remember not knowing her. I think we met sometime around Kindergarten. We lived only a few blocks from each other and even though we were a year apart in school and only attended the same school for 2 years, we were constant companions in childhood. 














 This is not a childhood picture of me and Jamie...but it could be. This is actually a birthday card she sent to me years ago. It hangs on my bedroom mirror and constantly reminds me of our friendship.

Summers were spent riding bikes, swimming together, pining over boys (both those in our school as well as impossible celebrities), playing games, creating crafts (oh, the friendship bracelet obsession!) and making mischief (ask her about the Pepto Bismol story!). In many ways, Jamie is the sister I never had. We've laughed together, cried together, and totally pissed each other off numerous times. Jamie also likes to remind me (incessantly) that Roger was the only boyfriend I ever had that she actually thought was good for me. Maybe that's why I married him. He received official "best friend" approval. 

I don't think there is anything we wouldn't do for one another.

Case in point: yesterday, I booted up my computer and was greeted with this message. 

I couldn't even run the computer in safe mode. If any of you have ever seen this screen, you may know it as the blue screen of death. I had recently downloaded some new Adobe software and apparently the computer was freaking out on me. 

I tried Googling some possible solutions but wasn't finding anything solid so....I looked to my best friend. Who also happens to be a computer expert.  She was still at work but promised to call me on her way home. We talked through some solutions. They didn't work. She researched some more. At 10:30 PM she called me with more information. We tried a few things. Long story short, Jamie to the rescue!

She joked that a shout-out on Twitter was in order. She got her shout-out but I don't think that was nearly enough. Hence, this post. 

Here's the thing: Jamie and I are best friends but we don't talk every day. In fact, since Charlotte's illness and death, we've kind of grown apart. It's complicated. 

But here is what I know: we are and will always be there for one another. We are so much like family that we don't need to talk every day to know that our friendship remains solid and intact. I know that when I call her (or if she calls me), we are there for one another. 

For anything. 

That's what friends are for. Happy Friday!

Popular posts from this blog

The Edge of Seventeen

It's that time of year when the blog musings center on my grief journey. Every year, it seems like we are busy with end-of-the-year school activities and the start of summer, planning vacations, and then (kablam)...it's almost July 9.  Grief is funny. Grief is weird. I remember very early after Charlotte died, I watched the movie Rabbit Hole.  There's an amazingly poignant scene where Nicole Kidman's character is talking with another woman who lost a child over 10 years before (played by Dianne Wiest). She talks about grief being like a brick in your pocket. It never goes away. Sometimes you can even forget it's there. But it comes back and makes its presence known from time to time. And (she says) "it's what you have of them."    I probably did not fully realize then what a powerful and true analogy that is. As time goes on, our grief changes. Yet, it is always there on the edge of things. It sits in that pocket and sometimes makes itself known.  This...

To everything there is a season

It's been a while since I used the blog to share my thoughts. What started as some random musings turned into much more than a Facebook post. I started writing this over a week ago but it's taken a minute to actually hit the publish button. Thanks for your patience. Welcome back.   It has been a week (or two) . One of those weeks where everything happens all at once. A week where things need to happen in a particular order or everything‘s going to go to shit. A week where you just seem to go from one thing to the next thing and you’ll figure out what’s going to happen next as it goes along. A week full of work and family and rest and sleeplessness and it never feels like there’s enough time for anything. But somehow it all works out.   A plaque on the library walk in NYC My week started with a trip for work to NYC. It coincided with my birthday. Because of that, I had all kinds of feelings all week about life in general. The week ended with a trip to Florida that, unfortun...

How to be Human

If the last few years have taught us anything, it is that life is complicated and challenging in many ways. Most days, I'm exhausted. Are you exhausted?  During the early part of 2022, though, I had the chance to read three books that really helped me frame my frustration, angst, and anxiety about the world.  All of these books are recently published, based on solid research, and approach their subjects in a way that makes them understandable and relatable to everyone. If you read even one of these books, I guarantee that you will learn things, gain perspective about the world, and discover insights about yourself and your humanity. Each book also touches on the role the COVID-19 pandemic has had on our lives and on our society so they are certainly timely.  I will share my individual reviews for each book that I published on my Goodreads profile. If you have read any of these books recently, would love to hear your thoughts as well!  Atlas of the Heart by Brene Bro...