Friends

I saw this article today and it struck me as kind of interesting. I've been categorizing my friends ever since...




By Michelle Burford

(OPRAH.com) -- "Friends are the family we choose for ourselves," writer Edna Buchanan once said.

I consider the "family" I've gathered -- with five kinds of pals I count on for completely different things -- among the wisest choices I've made. If you can find even one who embodies any of the characteristics that follow, you can consider yourself fortunate.

The Uplifter: This woman's favorite word: yes. You could tell her you're trading your six-figure income for a career in offtrack betting, and she'd barely pause before yelping "Go for it!" Don't you need someone who looks past the love handles to notice the extraordinarily gorgeous you?

The Travel Buddy: When the hotel in St. Lucia is a bust, one characteristic becomes all-important: flexibility. This agreeable companion need not be the girl you traded pinkie swears with on the playground; it's enough that she's comfortable with quiet (between gabfests) and is a teensy bit mischievous (as in tequila after midnight).

The Truth Teller: Intent is what separates the constructive from the abusive. Once you've established that the hard news is spoken in love (not in jealousy or malice), you'd be smart to seek out this woman's perspective.

The Girl Who Just Wants to Have Fun: One Saturday a pal and I -- and yes, we're both over age 12 -- pored over every glitter lip gloss in a drugstore aisle for an entire 45 minutes. Forget the crisis download (for that, see the Uplifter); this partnership is about spontaneous good times.

The Unlikely Friend: "Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive," Anaïs Nin wrote. My friends -- some twice my age, others half, some rich, others homeless, some black like me, others Korean, Mexican, Caucasian -- have added richness to my life that only variety can

An Open Letter

Dear Woman With Too Many Bumper Stickers,

While I may agree with your sentiment that "Well Behaved Women Don't Make History", I really must insist that you not try to make history by being the world's worst driver. Please-- take yourself and your little station wagon off of the interstate. You see, driving on a freeway when you clearly don't know the location of your gas pedal is demonstrably UNSAFE. Furthermore, to exacerbate this problem by talking on your cell phone while peddling your vehicle like Fred Flinstone down I-44 seems downright silly. So I would like to take this moment to ask that you take your own advice: "Think Globally and Act Locally" by STAYING OFF your local freeway at rush hour. I feel this would be the first significant step towards world peace-- starting with me (and my sanity)

Thank you for your kind consideration.

Sarah

P.S. You may feel that "There is a Village in Texas Missing it's Idiot", but I rather suspect that people who have clearly spent a large portion of their monthly income on little sticky slogans that they like to put all over their rat-trap cars shouldn't talk. Just a thought.

Random Thought of the Evening

I have had several people in my life (over the years) tell me to stop analyzing everything so much. I've always pretty much just dismissed that as an outright impossibility......analyzing people and situations is too much of part of who I am to flip a switch and turn it off.

But I suspect that sometimes it is just an excuse. Analyzing is definitely a part of my personality-- but I wonder how often I'm really just second guessing (and third guessing...and fourth guessing....) myself but rationalize it because I've labeled it as something that sounds more "adult".

Always Be Prepared For Never Being Able To Keep Up

I gave my 7 year old niece, Meredith, a ride home from church tonight. When we finished discussing the pizza we were going to eat for dinner, she was quiet for a minute or so and then the following conversation was had:

M: Aunt Sarah, I just don't get it.
S: Get what, sweetie?
M: How God could have always been here! He must have had a creator. If He's here now, someone had to make Him. How could He have always been here?
S: [silence]
M: Don't you think?


I eventually came up with a response about that being an excellent question that many people have asked before, and that we can never really comprehend it since we're stuck with a severely limited understanding, you know the drill.....all the while worrying that I was not going to satisfy her with this response and that I was going to somehow lead a 7 year old into a crises of the faith....but then I heard giggling. I turned around and she'd picked up a box from my car seat and stuck it on her head. That's when this conversation happened:

M: [in a deep robot voice] I'M A BOX HEAD!
S: [laughing] You are?
M: [deep robot voice] YES. AND I'M HERE TO ANNIHILATE YOU! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.


And what lesson can we take from this? Hm. Maybe-- never underestimate the distraction powers of cardboard? Or maybe it's just never overestimate the attention span of anyone under 10. But really-- I think the main point has to be: When the world starts to not make sense-- talking like a robot is bound to cheer you up.

Oh To Be Mysterious

So I realize that the entire premise of this blog is the fact that I realize just how mysterious I'm NOT.....but there's a little part of me that still likes to think that I am. I like to believe that people don't REALLY know what I'm thinking unless I let them.....that I have my own secret little world of ongoing thoughts in my head, and that I have complete control over how much of that world anyone gets to see.

Lately I've begun to suspect that I'm accidentally giving away far more information than I've realized. And it wasn't until I had THAT thought that I realized what a control freak I apparently am.

I don't know what the point of admitting any of this is, really, since you all probably know this about me anyway. The "self-aware" are always the last to know.

A Non-Update

I haven't posted since getting home from my vacation that turned into a hospital stay....but I've been rather unsure how to approach the whole topic (or whether to or not since it's been so exhaustively discussed in "real" life). I really don't feel like being all serious and deep about it-- but on the other hand, there are only so many "public forum" appropriate jokes you can make about having a 6lb ovarian cyst. (One that-- as my sister so lovingly pointed out-- weighed more than Meredith did when she was born).

So I'm turning to my go-to post for when all creativity fails. That's right! It is the return of the "random list of nonsensical observations"!!



1. I saw the new Harry Potter movie last night. It was quite excellent even with the teenage boys squeeing at Harry kissing Cho Chang. Yes, I said "squeeing"....of course they did the more manly "YEEAAHHHH!!!"-- but whatever. That's the boy equivalent of squeeing. Just because you do it in a lower tone of voice does not make it any less fan-girlish.

2. I've become hooked on the TV show Bones over the the last few weeks (thank you Netflix). It's strange that I got hooked on it because I don't usually like "solve the crime of the week" shows and I definitely don't like "look at these dead people while solving the crime of the week" shows. The only explanation I can give you is that it made me laugh.....and not in an accidental way.

3. This is the best movie that I've seen in a long time with a soundtrack I am already obsessed with.


















4. I read today that shoulder pads are coming back in style. I am horrifed. That is all.


5. Wait-- that isn't all. I also read that apparently "jumpsuits" are also big for the fall. I am aghast. THAT is all.



6. And just so that my family vacation is not completely neglected...I will leave you with a taste of my time in Arkansas: