Sep. 28: Appreciating people

It’s Day #30 of the September Blog Challenge, but I still haven’t written my Day #28 post, so that comes first. Then I need to do Days #29 and #30, and I’ll be caught up. I’m cheating a little by dating these correctly even though they’re being published late. Please don’t tell anyone.

Tell us the things you appreciate about your closest friends.

It’s hard for me to know how to limit this list, as I’m fortunate to have oodles of friends I think of as “close.” So, I went through emails, Facebook, and texts to see those I’ve communicated with most recently and made my list from there. Fair? Let’s just say it is. If you’re not on this list, it’s just because I haven’t communicated with you in the past three or four days, not because I don’t like you. Although… you never know now, do ya?

April: As evidenced by our friendship that’s going on 30 years, April’s a keeper. In her birthday wishes on FB the other day, I wrote why she’s the best: she's a great embarrassing-secret-keeper/college-memory-forgetter (or never-mentioner?) and one of the kindest, silliest, funniest people I know. You'd almost never guess that she once punched a girl. I really love the punching part. She’s such a gentle, quiet, kind person but SHE WILL KICK YOUR ASS.

Cassie: Smart, silly, fun… When you have friends with which you can play a game like Cards Against Humanity, well, you gotta hang on to those friends. Total rock star, this one.

Cristina: Sweet and so funny! Her whole family rocks, really. Nearly every day you’ll find one or both of my kids at her house or one or two of hers at mine. I love having neighbors like Cristina; if she ever moves away I will cry and cry because WHO KNOWS who might move in after her? The possibilities are scary.

Dina: She likes big books and she cannot lie… I like Dina because she shares a hatred of many of the same things I do, but a love of a few things too. Like sarcasm. And gossip. Here’s why I can’t believe I like her sometimes: she hates musicals and Disney. I KNOW, RIGHT??? You would think that someone with a tremendous fault like that would be off my list fast, but no… she makes up for it with all the other good stuff. And I don’t mean “good stuff” in a wink-wink kind of way. I don’t think we’ve been drunk enough together for that yet.

Ed: Someone I know has been secretly doing this blog challenge with me and didn’t tell me until just the other day. In spite of his withholding of important information, I appreciate Ed’s good taste in books—he introduced me to the Tales of the City series and encouraged me to try reading Margaret Atwood. He acknowledges the important life events—he came to see both my kids right after they were born. But, like Dina, he hates Disney. I guess maybe it’s good that he has that HUGE FAULT, because the world probably isn’t ready for that much awesome coming from one person.

Jenn K: She’s Jenn-with-two-enns (I’m Jen-with-one-en). Need a life of the party? Jenn K is your gal. When she’s around, shit gets laugh-ier, louder, and crazier. I would totally braid my hair into hers.

Kim F’n-W: If I could customize my Facebook news feed any way I choose, Kim’s posts would always show up first so I wouldn’t miss a single one. She was my biggest cheerleader throughout chemo, and I love that she always finds the funny in even the worst situation—it helps me do the same.

Fancy Lori™: She’s funny and smart and clever and made-up words are like nails on a chalkboard to her. In other words, she’s easy to tormentalize. It’s funner than anything! She knits bald caps/yarn wigs like a champ, and even whips out surprises for white elephant parties (yikes). I also felt honored that Lori wanted to write about my cancer story in this newspaper supplement last year. I like her. I do.

Sherilee: She inspires me to be more positive. She surprises me with boxes of homemade kettle corn delivered to my front door. We love a lot of the same TV, and the amount of time we text-chat about characters and plotlines is slightly embarrassing. Sherilee knows the true value of friendship and family, and I love that about her.

Sunshine: We haven’t been super-great about communicating since she moved away, which bums us both out, but we easily pick up where we left off. Sunshine makes me smile and laugh and is so very, very dear to me. She’s a good one.

Theresa: You want this girl on your side, for sure. Theresa is one of the kindest and most generous people I know. She’s super pretty and sweet, too, which makes her potty-mouth all the more shocking and hilarious. If you want to see a true Wonder Woman, just watch Theresa—she can do it all, and with a smile.

Tina: I feel fortunate to have such a sweet next-door neighbor, who always offers to help when she sees a need. One of the things I admire about her is her dedication to making memories for her kids—seems she’s always planning for fun.

Val: Oh, goodness. I love the snark and sassy this girl brings to the table. You wouldn’t think the snark and sassy could go along with kind and thoughtful, but SHE MAKES IT WORK. Val is the very definition of “you can count on me,” in so many ways.

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If you’re a blogger and want to do our blog challenge with us, let me know and I’ll send you our list! Otherwise, tune in here (and on Sherilee’s happy little blog) every day in September.