Friends

A long-overdue thought occurred to me as I was browsing through my posts from the past month or so, and it was this:

I sure give Terese a lot of grief.

Actually, I give her more grief than anyone else I know, with the possible exception of John and Greg. But they deserve it, so that doesn't count. Hehe. But seriously, folks.....

Because she is the person that she is, if that makes any sense whatsoever, her tolerance for Julia harassment is amazing. Spectacular. Almost unbelievable. And she keeps coming back for more. I'm one lucky person.

We've stood shoulder to shoulder through more choir concerts and rehearsals than I can count. We've watched football games and track meets and junior high and high school band concerts and solo and ensemble events and awards banquets and everything else in which our kids have participated. We've prayed together, traveled together, eaten together, (lots of eating together, mmmmmmm.....) gotten lost together, denied being lost together, laughed together, gotten into trouble together, and so much more.

Then there's her tolerance for all those pictures in which I've always been on the viewfinder side and she and Greg are on the lens side of my camera.....pictures and pictures and pictures. Although most of them look like this because she's really sick of me taking her picture. I think the fact that Terese hasn't socked me a good one and tossed my Canon over a cliff somewhere says volumes about her character.

Whatever.

Heck, we've done things together even before we knew each other and knew that we were doing the same things. These pictures were taken the same year. Except that we were a half of a continent away from each other.

Can you believe it. Just LOOK at our bald baby D#2s! And both D#1s have the same haircut!! And we both have BIG HAIR.

Whoa, man.

When I was first diagnosed with Sjogren's syndrome, she was the second person that I told, the first being John. We stood in the back of church during a break in a choir rehearsal and cried together. Actually, she teared up and I mechanically kept repeating, "It could be worse. I'm lucky. REALLY I am." The next day she bought a book about Sjogren's syndrome, and gave it to me after she had read it cover-to-cover.

I guess what I'm trying to say here is that I am aware that even though I blame Terese for so many of my character defects: eating junk food, throwing things at various people, having my phone on vibrate in my bra during church, saying stupid things, and doing stupid things....in actuality, I appreciate her more than she knows. Or, at least more than it appears than I do. And that......this is really hard to say, people....I should take more responsibility for my own failings, and that she's only PARTLY to blame for my doofus behaviors. And most of all, that I'm really, really, glad that she hasn't abandoned me years ago.

Dagnabit. Whew. That was hard.

So. Here it is in a nutshell:

Terese. Thanks.

The End.