And we're off...

I woke up this morning, dreading today. After a full day of work and a baseball game, I'm going to load up my kids and their dad at 9:30 pm and drive to Fort Morgan, CO for the funeral of a dear friend. We'll sleep in the car, take turns driving, maybe stop along the way. We'll get there just in time for the service, maybe have lunch with some old friends, and then hop in the car and drive the 6+ hours home. What's not awesome about that? But then, there's a light at the end of the tunnel, because one of my best, craziest, most fun friends of all time is meeting us there. Maureen!

Oh the stories I could tell of the two of us, fresh out of college in a town MUCH too small for both of us to live in. The memories we've relived over the phone this week have been the glimmer of sunshine in this otherwise, drab and stressful week. The inside stories that ordinary folk would hear us cackling over would DEFINITELY get us institutionalized. Who loses their shit over the phrase "you don't even know"? We do! Who get's lost IN WYOMING, while heading to a town 10 miles down the road? Who cracks up upon the mention of Poi...or Poi eating a 3 lb roast....or Poi digging up Brenda's dog remains? That's right, Poi was a dog (not an alien, as Reen would have said)...who knows what kind of dog, but I'd guess at half Chow, half Chihuahua...she was 7 lbs of pure terror! But were loved her, we were amused by her...Brenda? Not so much...Lucky for Poi (and Maureen) Brenda never held a grudge.

Over the past several years, I've kept in touch with Maureen, although not NEARLY as much as I should. This week, there's been a resurgence in our relationship again. Instead of just random emails or commenting on each other's Facebook statuses, we've talked. I mean I've RELISHED the emails of the daily struggle that is Reen's life. Most recently...the one in which she travels from the bathroom of her work, through the main lobby, the student lobby, the study area and finally into her office before someone tells her she has a YARD LONG piece of toilet paper hanging from the back of her pants...HAD me in stitches. But this week, we've called, we've texted...we've reconnected.

The day after Brenda died, I heard on the news that we typically carry the same number of friends our entire lives, but that every seven years, we replace some. I'm sure this is true. I am connected to old friends that I haven't talked to in years because of Facebook, but in general, I've replenished my friends as my life and my surroundings have changed but one thing is certain...I have some friends that I need to reconnect with, these friends are the ones that have built my chosen family. Who are they? I can tell you.

Jeny - my best friend from high school

Sarah - my best friend from College

Beth and Maureen - my best friends from Fort Morgan

Diana - my best friend from Bettendorf

Celeste - my best friend...my taller, tanner, twin

and Sandi - my best friend for the Q12 report!

Along with my sister and my mom, these women have molded me into the person I am. They hold some piece within them that I wish I was like. They are fun, they are smart, they are witty and wise. They love their friends and their family without boundaries. What a lucky person I am to have known all of them...and what a fool I'd be to not cultivate these relationships. It's my goal for the remainder of the year to be sure that I connect or reconnect with all of these women. To make sure that, just as I feel honored to have walked with each of them, they can say the same of me. Plus, they all have a little crazy in them, so when I feel like I'm suffering from a serious lack of funny, all I have to do is reconnect.