friendship

The dictionary defines friend as someone you know and share a bond of affection with out side of family or romantic partner.  I define friend as someone who is there for you through thick and thin and tons of fun to be with most of the time.  Kind of like marriage, for better or worse.  Growing up moving all the time it was difficult  for me to make friendships that were lasting.  When I got married and moved here that  changed.  Yes some friends have come and gone.  People move, interests change, people change.  That's why the friends I have had for years are so dear to me.  Every year I try to have a "Oh darn school is starting again" girlfriend party.  Since school starts in a couple of weeks that's what we did last Sunday night.  We ate and visited, solved all the problems of the world and remember the past .
We as a bunch are a very mixed group in  a lot of ways, very alike in others.  We are married, widowed and divorced.  Still working, retired and somewhere in between.  We have 14 kids between all of us, most grown, one still in high school.  We are mostly teachers, with an entrepreneur and administrative assistant thrown in.  Those that are retired are busier than those that still work.  If not there, we are hurtling toward social security at an alarming rate.  We are fabulous  women, mothers, cooks, artists, quilters, gardeners, organizers, computer geeks and grandmas(the best job ever!)  Most of all we are there for each other.  When K lost her husband, we circled the wagons, stayed with her, fed her  and generally tried to make her life easier.  When I had knee replacement surgery they were there with food, books, trips to therapy and even pjs.  I could go on and on.

 Here's the cast of characters: 

KF  Not your sterotypical librarian, she runs around like a crazy person and is the easiest person to get along with I've ever had in my life.  We raised our kids together, they grew up, we didn't.

KE, Retired, funny, loving and sweet.  She's deaf so don't try to talk to her when she's driving.  She gets busy signing or reading your lips and forgets she's driving.

MS, the baby of the group, only in her forties.  An art teacher who never left the 70's.  She's the one most likely to be in tie dye.

JL,  Self employed and works way to hard, fabulous quilter.  An ex cop who acts really tough and is intensely loyal .  The person I'd most likely call if I needed help in the middle of the night.

NC, I've known her for years but only have become good friends in the last couple.  She's funny, caring and lots of fun to hang out with .  We're the shorties of the group and  I need a ladder to get into her huge SUV. She has to drive a lot on our adventures, she has the biggest car..

VE, sweet, quiet and loves to read. I'd like to think she and I are the most alike,but I'm not nearly as quiet or as sweet.   She once had to house my family for nearly a week in an ice storm.  My twins were toddlers and we ended up using her dish towels as diapers when I ran out of the real thing.  Now that's a friend.

KC, the friend I've known the longest, she was my college room mate.  We've stayed in touch through the years and when she gave up working we reconnected in a whole different way.  Now I keep getting her involved  with our adventures.

I have been blessed to have many people I call friend, my neighbors, my church family and friends that live far away.  Aside from my family this group and a couple of others, are the folks I would most like to be stuck on a desert island with.  It would never be dull.

Cherish your friends ,they are special.  I know life can  get in the way, but make the time to keep those connections going.