On Girlfriends

I just spent a fabulous weekend with three of my best gal pals. One of them was the bride, the other two were the maid of honor and another bridesmaid. Let me say how amazed I am every time I see these women how incredible they are. They are intelligent, articulate, opinionated, hilarious, quirky, fashionable, caring, well-read, patient, and all around wicked awesome. They have grown up into accomplished and incredible adults. I could not imagine my life without their presence, though sometimes we lose touch for a little while. We can always pick up right where we left off.

Sometimes we forget how long we've been friends or how many little in-jokes we have until we are around people who haven't known us as long. Then we proceed to finish each other's sentences while we fill in the newcomers. We told stories this weekend about the Van Song and Eat Me Teacakes, living and traveling in Europe together, Girl Scouts and high school, crushes and first loves, and craziness and mayhem (which generally follow us everywhere). To make a long story short (too late), every time we get together, we add a few more inside jokes to our bag of tricks. Our newest: the ka-THUNK of an imaginary seal of approval from one of us. It's just one more thing we'll have to explain to the new people who come into our lives. It's one of the reasons we love our friend's new husband (the groom): he jumped right in and started being part of the silliness. Ka-THUNK...I approve.

As the maid of honor said in her toast, certain friends help make up the fabric of our lives. You ladies are the reason I tear up any time I hear the song "For Good" from Wicked. Because I know you fabulous women, I have been changed for good.