The Benefits of Good Friends

I am blessed with many things and friends are some of my greatest blessings.  It's not easy to be my friend.  I tend to be reclusive and am not likely to call someone up and say let's go out.  It's not that I don't like people, I just don't like all people equally, and I don't like anyone for everything.  That sounds harsh and confusing doesn't it?  Let me try to explain.

My friends are all specialists.  They all have their own particular area in which no one else compares.  I have friends from 40 years ago that know almost everything about me so I don't have to keep starting from the beginning of ME.  I can just start on a conversation and they know the context and off we go.  I have more recent friends who all have different roles in my life. 

I have a friend who loves to use big words, complicated words, unusual words.  This is fun since I love words.  I have used words that only she understood and it's fun to see her eyes light up with amusement.  It's even more fun to see the looks of bewilderment on the other faces in the room.  Mean?  No, just a common bond.

I have a friend who is simple.  I don't mean mentally challenged.  I mean there is absolutely no artifice.  She says what she thinks out loud without concern about how it will be perceived.  She'll say something in the middle of a movie in a normal voice which is obvious and the people around us laugh, but she just had to say it.  Kind of like a five year old, but I mean in the innocent, unpretentious way. 

I have friends who are work friends.  We are good friends at work but don't meet outside of work.  We don't have anything in common except we are damn good at what we do and enjoy working together.  The comfort of not worrying about what your cohorts are doing while you work is undeniably great. 

I have friends who are fashionistas.  They look at me with knowing eyes.  They know their eyes are not going to be pleased when they see me, but they hang out with me anyway.  I'm stuck in the 60's.  The decade, and my decade.  Why didn't they tell me electric blue eyeshadow was out but has recently come back in.  OK.  You have to be a supermodel to pull it off, but I could give it a try.  They just let me be my unfashionable self.

I have a friend who wants to feed me.  All the time, whatever the event.  If she gets pick-up-the-friend duty when a medical procedure is due, she thinks there must be chicken soup and a vigil to make sure I'm OK.   I of course just want to go to bed and sleep, but the offer is appreciated just the same, but please: no soup for me!

I have two friends who are pragmatic.  No matter what life throws their way, they move on with minimal complaint.  They have a way to put things into perspective and don't say why me, they say why not me?   They are never victims: they are human beings who accept that life is not necessarily easy.  They are my hero's.

Then there are my BFF's who are gay men.  They have taught me how to cook, drink fine wine and they show infinite patience with my neurotic self.  If I have a rough patch physically, they call to make sure I have everything I need, every day until I am well.  If I have a rough patch emotionally, they wine and dine me until I forget what I was upset about.  They are kind and respectful of my privacy and not above teasing the hell out of me when I take myself too seriously.  I am a lucky woman.

If friends are treasures, I am wealthy.  Life is good.