What they lack in height, they make up for in awesomeness.
As you may know, I've recently stepped out of the working world in order to recharge and re-prioritize. In addition to my three main priorities - taking care of my health, spending quality time with my kids, and pursuing a writing career - I'm also actively working toward some other no-less-important goals, one of which is to nurture my relationships with my family and friends, old and new.
I am a lucky woman for many reasons. I have a roof over my head, food on my table, and (relatively) sound health and well-being. I also have people in my life who I love and who love me in return, including some of the best friends a girl could ask for.
I have, at times, bemoaned how difficult it is to make friends as an adult. I have, at times, told myself that I'm just not good at making friends. And those things may or may not be true, but that's a whole other topic for a whole other day. Let's just say that while I'm a generally friendly and, I think, well-liked person, my social awkwardness and some pretty steep walls I've built up to protect my little heart do a damn fine job of keeping people from getting too close. No matter! Because what I do seem to be good at is keeping friends once I have them. I mean, that may be because they can't scale the walls to get back out. Figuratively, of course. I don't keep my friends in, like, a pit or anything, I swear. (Put the lotion in the basket!)
But I digress, in a disturbing direction.
I am particularly lucky to have in my life the three hotties you see in the photo above. The four of us have been close friends for over 20 years and in that time we have seen each other through first break-ups and fashion disasters, math tests and marriages, the deaths of loved ones and the births of ten (10!) amazing children, amongst other milestones and hills and valleys. These ladies have held my hands and my heart, and sometimes my hair, and really, really often smacked me hard on the ass, figuratively as well as so very literally. I think it's just their way of showing their love?
When I meet other people and they ask about the friends in my life, they are often astonished that the four of us have remained so close this long, despite the fact that we live four different lives in four different cities. It is in no small part because we make our friendship a priority: we plan our at-least-quarterly get-togethers months in advance, and drop everything to help each other when needed in between.
Like all friendships, we came together by circumstance but, unlike many others, we have stuck together by virtue of the great amount of trust and love and fun we share. And probably because of our shared love of bargain hunting. And perhaps out of laziness. Did I mention how hard it is to make friends as an adult? The trick is to befriend people early on who are as socially awkward as you, that way they never leave. (Also, there's the pit.)
These girls are my family, as are their fantastically well-chosen spouses and incredible, adorable children. And I know that they always will be, but I don't want to take our friendship for granted either and to that end, I intend to continue to inundate them with my stupidly long emails, advocate for more concerts and cottage weekends and epic Value Village treasure hunts, and leave my shampoo bottles at their houses so they are forced to see me again.
So I guess this post is my small way of saying, Rose, Dorothy, Sophia, thank you for being a friend. I'm looking forward to hanging out with you on our lanai in another 20 years or so (when I'm not too busy with my many, many lovers).