There are very few things that I am good at.
I was an pretty good athlete (more due to the competitive spirit imbued by my very competetive mother than actual physical gifts).
I am of average intelligence (except about my own finances -- in that arena I am retarded, sorry if the use of that word offends anyone, wait, shut up).
However, there is one thing that I am the most talented person I've ever met or even heard about. Making kick ass friends.
I may have inherited this talent. Mom did bring Aunt Linda into my life.
I met Buddah through my athletic skill....we played volleyball together in college. The reason I call her Buddah is because she called herself that...and for one entire season the whole team touched her self-proclaimed "beer gut" before every game for luck. Unusual for a Catholic College team, no? Her self-effacing humor had the desired effect of making us a team and making us happy.
Buddah's parents were divorced which was something of a novelty among my friends. However, she made it seem normal and even enviable. Her Dad and I always had a good relationship because he gave me hell about everything. He (and his wife) also tirelessly came to games and were supportive even after Buddah graduated. Love that guy.
When I was in law school Buddah lived nearby doing her first job. Then when I moved to Chicago I picked a spot a block from Buddah. We wear the same size shoe. This is not a small thing. Essentially we had twice the number of shoes that either of us could afford. We also wore the same three sizes of clothes (thin, normal and pre-menstral bloat). Almost every work day she would stop by my place for a diet coke and a wardrobe exchange of some kind. She never brought up the fact that I had no sense of style and her clothes were always cuter.
Sometimes we were so broke that if we pooled our money we only had $10 and we would go out on the town for an entire evening on that. No matter what we were doing we had fun. She was truly a partner in crime. And it was nice to know someone who so completely "got" me. As an example: On the way to volleyball tournaments which we played nearly every Saturday she stopped at burger king and got me a whopper junior with cheese.....at 7 in the morning.
All the rest of it sounds like normal girlfriend stuff. We stood up in each other's weddings, been through child rearing, marital discord, ridiculous bosses, unemployment, life-threatening illnesses, disputes with other moms....etc. But through it all she is one person with whom I could discuss everything: weird results, mammograms, personal grooming, life altering decisions, can I carry a white purse now.
The first time she saw my daughters after I told them their father and I were divorcing she gave them each her cell phone number to carry around with them in case they wanted to talk about what was going on.
She's called me three times while I've been writing this.
She wanted to know how MiMi was because I'd told her yesterday that MiMi was getting sick (maybe finally it's MiMi's turn with the stomach flu). She wanted to run through her wardrobe for her trip to Hawaii (inexplicably she is taking her husband instead of me). And she wanted to mystify me with the fact that her husband just bought a car that she's never seen.
Neither of us have a sister but if I had one it would be hard to compete with Buddah. She is truly great at being my friend.
Best Friend thy name is Buddah.
