Friends

I love my friend Kim but she is, as we say, Queen of the Harpies. I can stop at her house for a minute and before I know it it's 5 hours later and she has practically convinced me to stay overnight. The best thing is that it's not like we are doing any big kind of project. We are usually just sitting around, having a meal, playing with her daughter Lucy or watching TV. It's the kind of friendship that you can say anything or say nothing at all and it's comfortable. I love it and it's the type of friendship that everyone should have. Kim is also my art teacher (that's how we met)and she has been instrumental in my art growth and also in growing my confidence. She's simply fabulous.

I have this other friend Maria - we've known each other a very very long time. We met because I was hired to fill in the position she was vacating at a restaurant we both worked at. We hit it off instantly and have been close ever since. We lived near each other for quite a few years and partied our brains out together. Many a drunken night was spent at The Blue Mermaid dancing away with Maria. When we look back on it now we laugh at how we were living. I've also traveled a bit with Maria and having a friend that you can travel with is KEY. We've been to New Orleans and to New Mexico. Those are the two that stick out but I'm sure that there are more.

Maria has been instrumental in my going back to school to get my degree. She did the same thing at 40. She enrolled in school and started from the very beginning as a non-traditional matriculating student at Plymouth State in New Hampshire she then went on and got her Masters and has now enrolled in a program to get her PHD and I couldn't be prouder of her. I used to give her a really hard time about how much time school was taking up in her life - and now I totally get it. When I need to cry on someones shoulder about school I can always call Maria because it goes beyond sympathy - she has actually been there done that and that's really helpful. She is an amazing friend and I probably don't say thank you nearly enough.

I've been lucky enough to make several new friends through school one of them being my professor. Amy has believed in my intelligence from the very beginning. She was my advisor for my first semester and if I had had another professor I'm not sure I would have made it - it was a rough, rough semester. She was amazingly directed and helped me to reign it all back in and get it on paper. She is now the advisor for my thesis and is doing the same thing. We've been able to connect on a level that is beyond teacher student because of our ages - and it's been great.

I'm lucky to have great friends and I mean really GREAT friends - and I just want them to know that I think they are all spectacular.

Yes, yes I know 7 more days....