Day 3: The Fulfillment of Long-Time Friendship

As I wrote yesterday, this whole holiday thing really has me off schedule, and I am a day behind on everything, Why? Because I thought it was Monday and it isn't. I thought I still had an "extra" day this week. I was wrong. I should have just read what I wrote yesterday about Mondays and I would have realized this sooner.

Add the summer like weather which has given me an early case of spring fever, and I have been hopeless about staying on top of my deadlines. Maybe that's why I had to stay up until almost 1 a.m. to finish my part of the book chapter we are working on. The good news is that I did.

So, since I thought I had this "extra" day I took some time today to write and send off some old-fashioned, snail mail letters, cards and gifts. I am o-l-d after all, that's how we did it back in "the day" (another expression that irritates the hell out of me).

One of these was for my BFF who is turning 50 on Thursday! And yes, DUDE, I am talking about YOU. Not only have she and I known each other since Jr. High---oh sorry, "middle school" (blech), but she is the first among us to be hitting the big 5-0!!!

For some reason, this is really making the fact that this is my 50th year seem even more real. And it makes another irritating expression; "the years go by so fast" seem so true. I find it so hard to believe that we have known each other for 35 years. I mean, I can still picture us "young" and as teenage girls. I remember things we did, how we looked and how hard we were on ourselves about how we looked, how serious everything seemed to us at 15, 16, and 17 and how we mocked everything and everyone (ok, well some things never change). Man, it really does seem like just yesterday (yet another cliched expression).

And, although there was about a 10 year stretch when we didn't keep in touch, I am very happy to say that we have been in touch for the past decade and have gotten even closer as we have gotten older. There's something so comforting about having someone who knows everything about you, warts and all, and who doesn't require any explanations, because she was there and she still is.

I want to thank you, Ivanna, my BFF for being such a good friend, for your incredible wit that always makes me laugh, for listening when I whine, and when I cry, and when I sound like a complete nut case; and for always, always reminding me to "maintain!" Happy 50th year to you, I am so happy to be going on this adventure into the 50s with you alongside me!

"A good friend is a connection to life - a tie to the past, a road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world." ~Lois Wyse

Ivanna and Judi, Magic Mountain circa 1979? (not 1879 like it looks like was at Spilikin Corners)