You get me

I was recently reminded just how lucky I am to have the friends that I do.  And I was reminded of that by a Crest Spinbrush electric toothbrush.  But we’ll come back to that.  First check out this picture:

Yes, I chose hot pink bridesmaid dresses

 

First of all, are they not all gorgeous?   I have pretty friends.  But my point is these 5 women, and many many others of you, have been such a support to me in my life and in going through this infertility nightmare.  So I thought I would pay tribute to them and all of you by making them the subject a blog post. 

So we will just start with pretty girl #1 on the left.  That is Renee, a.k.a., “Noodle”.  I could tell you how she got the nickname but that would take the mystery out of life.  Noodle and I met the summer before our senior year, we shared a college townhouse together.  Even though we went to a small private college our paths never crossed much as I was busy being a goody-two-shoes RA and had always lived supervising dorms of younger classmen so I never got to live with my own peers.  Noodle introduced me to ‘going out with the girls’ something I had never really done before.  Just having fun with a group of girls, maybe enjoying a beverage or two, and laughing about our adventures.  Noodle helped bring me out of my shell.  Noodle is the type of friend I may not talk to often but I know I could call her up, anytime, and she’d be there for me.

Pretty girl #2 is Laura, a.k.a. “Sturge”.  Laura is my ‘sister from another mister’.  Laura and I connect because we share almost identical core values.  She was a fellow RA in college and we had many adventures in silliness like her trying to teach me to golf, late night walks to Dunkin’ Donuts, and sledding in the winter.  Our most ‘in common’ thing would have to be our uncanny ‘klutziness.’  My klutziness is more focused on just bad luck, of course I had a multiple complication appendectomy where they LOST my blood test, that’s my luck.  Laura’s klutziness is just plain klutzy.  I have seen Laura trip over the invisible air.  Several times.  Laura also does have a touch of the bad-luck klutzys as well.  Like the time she biked up the highest hill in our college town, a huge athletic feat.  Only to start the descent and LITERALLY have the front tire of her bike JUST LOCK UP.  She lived.  If you look closely at the picture you will see a bruise on her arm, which we tried to cover up with make up.  I wasn’t worried about it showing, it wouldn’t be Laura without a bruise somewhere.

And Laura is the kind of best friend who inspires you to be better.  She is THE most organized person I have ever met and has the study skills and work ethic of 10 people combined.  I was more of the ‘can’t sit still to read this school book’ type of person.  Now fortunately (or unfortunately) I have an innate ability to remember almost word for word things I hear, so I always aced the tests in school.  The papers and projects?  Not so much.  Now I still finished with a really great GPA, but Laura finished valedictorian.  Laura is the type of friend who always remembers important dates in your life, where I am always looking for my calendar that I have lost.  For the 6th time.  That day.  She always remembers to call and check in, she is thoughtful and caring and we share the same faith and faith outlook I feel.  I can’t tell you how comfortable it is to have someone you can talk to about God and faith and know you are on the same page.  She inspires me to be better.

So skipping over me is pretty lady #3 Lindsay, a.k.a ‘Linds’ and other nicknames I can’t mention here.  But we aren’t going to talk about Linds right now. 

So pretty girl #4 is my sister Cherie, a.k.a ‘Cher’ or ‘apple dumpling’, don’t ask, I have no idea. Just like I am not quite sure the origin of my childhood nickname ‘Mushi’ (pronounced ‘moo-shee’, or ‘moosh’ for short)  Cherie is my sister and we are only 2.5 years apart which means we spent most of our childhood as bestest pals until one of us pissed the other off and then it was WAR.  This only happened every other day or so.  Luckily we outgrew that phase.  Cherie and I share those inside family jokes that only sisters can share and we have the same snarky sense of sarcasm.  Cherie was the ‘smart one’ of the two of us.  She actually passed Organic Chemistry which BLOWS MY MIND.  She could be a doctor because she gets all that science stuff.  I couldn’t balance a chemical equation to save my life. 

Pretty girl #5 is Kudzai, a.k.a., ‘Kudz’, which is what I call her in my head because I am sure she hates it.  Kudzai and I met in Seminary and lived in the same retched dormitory (tomb-like building).  Our rooms shared a common foyer area.  This is often where Kudzai would find me, laying in our foyer.  Moaning.  Not of being ill, but whenever school life or other events got stressful I liked to stretch my legs up the wall and lay on the floor and think.  I couldn’t do this in my room as it was the size of a tomb and every wall was covered in bookcases, or a desk, or my bed.  She’d open her door and say “Oh dear what is the matter?”  And get this, she has a British accent, so it was like Mary-frikin-Poppins which always made me smile and forget the reason I resorted to laying in our foyer.  Kudzai was such a nice friend to meet in Seminary.  She just always had a sunny personality no matter what and everyone could call her a friend. 

So back to pretty girl #3, Lindsay.  Lindsay gets my humor.  We are snarky, we have potty mouths when we’re together, and we are dead honest with each other.  I always know where I stand with Linds.  We send each other all sorts of gifts only we find funny.  Linds is the one I went to visit to meet her brand new baby which I wrote about here and here.  While out there visiting she introduced me to Teavana tea and one of their particular teas, Raspberry Sangria.  It was DIVINE.  It was also discontinued and Linds had ordered a bunch of it while they still had it in stock.   I actually called the company and tried to see if they had any left or would be offering it again.  No luck. 

Well a couple of weeks ago I was feeling a little low in spirits and also ill from the side effects of some meds I was on for our infertility treatment.  And I had called Linds to talk about it.  A few days later a box shows up at my door.  I bring it in and tell Jacob the return address is from Lindsay.  He cautiously says “ok…?” He has seen some of the gifts we send each and was appropriately cautious.  I open it up and it is filled with packets of that tea I had loved so much!  I’m squeeling with delight and pulling out the tea when I see something else in there.  And this is what I find:

A Crest ProClean Spin Electric toothbrush.  I pause for just a second and then I burst out laughing hysterically.  Jacob still looks confused and I start yelling “Santa, Santa! ”  Lindsay gets me.  She had read my post on Santa  and remembered my 1st request to Santa. 

All of these women get me. They are each unique and each filled a particular place in my life and made it fuller.  And there are so many more of them.  Sarah, a.k.a. ‘Mosier’ would have my back in a fight without even asking if I was wrong or right, she’d just jump in.  And we both secretly want to explore an old abandoned hospital in CT for ghosts.  Laura D, a.k.a. ‘Malikwah’ gets my corny sense of humor and forgave me for almost getting her killed multiple times in my car (It was never my fault, just bad luck with flat tires and a car that liked to roll unless securely put into park). 

And all my new friends in Indiana have been so wonderful as well.  And my wonderful husband of course who has put up with more mood swings than I care to recall.   And has understood when I just needed to cry.  And while friends may be the ‘family you choose’ my own family has been great at understanding and supporting me.  I am blessed.

And an electric toothbrush helped me remember that.  Thanks for getting me, all of you.