Friends are the Spice of Life!

Well, I've touched on myself and my family. So now I will tell you about my friends.

As you can imagine I'm not a wildly social person. I tend to make friends slowly, but I stay friends with them for a long, long time.

My closest friend, and probably one of my favorite people in the world, is Abby. The funny thing is, we've never actually met in person. We met on the Internet about seven or eight years ago, at a fansite for Lord of the Rings. Oh yes, we were THOSE kinds of dorks. At first she really annoyed me, but I was too polite to tell her to bug off. She was always telling me about how she was in karate and kicked ass and blah blah blah. I thought she was full of shit.

Then one day, for reasons I can't even remember, I gave her my phone number. After a single phone conversation, I was hooked. Abby is charming, charismatic and has a knack for turning every day events in adventures. She's also a master martial artist, a health care worker and a great friend. So why does she like me? Not a clue. In comparison I feel bland, plain and boring.

At any rate, Abby and I have very different opinions on many topics - which is why we never discuss politics or religion - but somehow we're kindred spirits nonetheless. Like shining stars hidden amongst the cornfields that populate both of our states, we're sort of diamonds in the rough. At least, that's how she makes me feel. So yeah, Abby? Totally the bomb.

Next there's Rhonda. While Abby is about the same age as me, Rhonda is a good 15 years older. She also has four children, two are in their early 20's and the other two are 8 and 12. Rhonda is like a motherly figure, full of common sense and stolid determination. If I need something accomplished and can't figure out how to do it, Rhonda is sure to have at least two or three different options.

She's always been a single mom, and I love the way she can use the same pair of hands to sew beautiful Halloween costumes for 8-year-old Serena and repair holes in the wall left by 12-year-old Chris so flawlessly that you can't even tell they were there.

Rhonda's two older kids are Tim and Miranda. They share their mother's quirky sense of humor, and the three of us often tease Rhonda about goofy things she's done. Such as her first experience with Instant Messaging. She kept putting different smiley faces after each message in an IM to Miranda. Then she said, "I'm just experimenting" and put a little sheep beside it. Two seconds later she types, "Don't tell your brother."

So there's all sorts of sheep jokes made at Rhonda. Tim and Miranda are very laid back and easy to be with. There's no need to fill empty spaces with conversation, you can just sit quietly in the same room with them and be comfortable. We also enjoy the same books and movies and video games, so they're a lot of fun to hang out with.

Next in line is the saintly Pat. Okay, so she's not saint and I probably should have included her in the "family" blog rather than the friends. Pat, whom I mentioned in my first entry, is the woman who essentially saved my life. She changed the way I look at everything and helped me to find a way of living that makes me happy. I affectionately call her my "Other Mother". She's always the second person I call when something has upset (the first being my actual Mother). Even when she's having a bad day or something, she always has good, sound advice for me or helps puzzle through difficult situations. Pat is awesome!

I'm also good friends with Pat's daughter, Mandie. Mandie and I have a lot in common. She is also disabled, though for reasons having to do with her physical health and not her mental health. We share common interests, and have a similar sense of humor. She's the only person who can get me to work up my courage enough to drive into the "big city" of South Bend. We always have fun there (except when she wants to go to the Mall - then I cling to her and we get out as fast as possible.) Mandie loves to play her X-Box 360, and she has it hooked up to the Internet and all. Because she's a rare "Gamer Chick", she's always attracting guys of all ages. The youngest (that I know of) is 14! Mandie is great though, and I always enjoy our little "adventures" in South Bend.

Jessica is another of my friends who lived at the Housing Authority with me. She's 24, tall, slim and drop dead gorgeous. She's also a wild party girl, she loves to get drunk, get high, have fun and go crazy. On paper, she looks like someone I would hate. But that's only the part of Jess she lets the general public see. There's another side to her that she keeps kind of hidden. I don't know why she hides the best part of herself like that.

Jess is a hard worker, average 10 hours a day waiting tables at a local diner. She once told me that she'd go crazy if she didn't have a job. She's also very sweet and charismatic with an infectious smile and easy demeanor. Even though neither of us live at the Housing Authority any more, we actually moved into the same apartment complex - not on purpose, it just sort of happened that way. So we'll walk over to each other's apartment a couple times a week, just to hang out and chat. I'm so glad Jess is my friend, she's the one I see the most often and she's usually first on the scene when I need emotional support.

So those are my friends, the few, the proud, the mildly insane. I love them all dearly and count them almost as close as family. In fact I've brought many of them to family gatherings at one time or another. At any rate, I have to get up and get some stuff done now. I'm expecting company and I don't have the attention span to come up with an appropriate ending for this blog. So ta for now!