Angela Does Barbie

My friend Angie's birthday is in late August. She sure has been on my mind. We have been friends for 30 years. I know a lot about her. We sat in English together through our junior and senior years in high school. We didn't always talk as much as my other friends. Angie smiled much and brooded a bit. I knew what she was thinking when the one of the "perfect" girls snooted by. It would be fair to say we raised a little hell in high school. Now I know the only difference between 'good' girls and 'bad' girls is the truth...

I always idolized Angie. She seemed so smart and present, spiritual and mature. And she was and is. We used to talk about Led Zeppelin. Then it became our dead brothers. Now it is the tidal wave of age and all that implies. I think a true friendship started way back then but it has deepened despite how little we get to see each other.

But there is is one thing we never talked about. It never came up. Barbie. We never talked about Barbie. My friend Shelley and I sure did. She even bought my daughter Dentist Barbie. I bought my daughter so many dang Barbies hoping the fever would catch. It really didn't. She liked Polly Pocket and who could blame her? Barbie was so damn perfect and white and tall.

I didn't really play with Barbie as a kid so much as decorated for her. I would set up an elaborate compound for her and her groovy friends. There were really great bedrooms complete with shoe box lids for beds decked out with linens and those green mod washcloths of the 70s for bedspreads. Remember bedspreads? Its all comforters and duvet covers now. But Barbie had fabulous thick luscious green and chartreuse swirl washcloths to keep her warm at night.

But Angie and I never discussed it. However, I now know Angie's whole Barbie agenda via her blog. It is such a good post, a favorite among favorites. She is a brilliant writer and she always has been. I am so proud of her for launching into writing in a serious way, one that I can be a part of.

She is one of those people, because she is quiet and introspective, that after all these years I am still getting to know. She continues to fascinate me three decades later. There is one thing I do not like about her though. I don't see her enough. Hey Angie, do you and Francie want to come over to listen to 45s or for some camping?

Please visit Stalking Sunsets, get to know her, fall in love and wish her a happy birthday in any order you prefer.

Babe Three Oh

Shelley and I started calling each other Babe many years ago, within the first year of our friendship.
"Hey Babe"
"Hey babe."
"Oh Babe, did I tell you...?"
"No way Babe!"
and so on. It still goes that way with us. Cards are signed "Babe, Happy Birthday, love, Babe." I just spent the weekend with her, returning from the Galveston Bay area with these pictures and thoughts. The following text and pictures are related only in that they both came home with me.

Hardly anything has been more important to me than the deep connections I have with friends. When I was in high school I established some very meaningful relationships that continue today. My mother recently remarked that in high school she told me this particular friendship with Shelley would not last, that it would all fade and fizzle out. Well, we have been friends for only 30 years. The really neat thing about Shelley is that our friendship has really evolved, grown and matured. We are not stuck in high school or college. We are right here right now in our friendship.

There is a group of 8 of us that email. There are only a handful of days in the last 8 or so years that have gone without an email from someone in that group. The more life happens to each of us, the closer were are drawn. If everything goes in our lives like it is supposed to, everyone will bury their parents. Of 8 of us, half have done just that. Two of us have lost both. Three of us have lost a brother, one has lost two. One of us has buried a child. That's what happens when thing go badly wrong.

We all have children. A couple have little ones, one waited, one kept having them. There is also a grandmother or two, or GILF which is by far preferable... Divorces, yes, past and current. Two are going through divorces now.

So when we get together there are tears. But mostly we laugh, eat, drink and pee frequently. We are all in your face friends that tell it like it is. This doesn't always go so well and yet we know how vital that kind of love is.

Weight goes up and down, kids start to drive, kids have good grades, kids have bad grades, husbands make us mad, husbands cheat, husbands buy massage tapes and love us like teenagers. Parents were alcoholics, parents were heroes. Therapists, prayers and margaritas, important for various needs at particular times...

The dynamic of just the two of us together this last weekend was that we didn't miss a word of what the other said. And there were a lot of words. A number of words roughly 4 times the average number a woman uses in a day. Maybe more. And, honey, many more to come...

Babe, thanks for a great weekend, love, Babe...

This Is New

My little girlie friend Jemellia and I always do our show booths together. However, we have 3 Etsy shops between us. So we decided to call our collaboration 2 Birds In A Pod. I have launched the site 2BirdsInAPod for news about our appearances and such. I would love for you to take a peak, say howdy and follow us. I have a button over there on the side to access it anytime you are here.

Thank you, thank you, we are so proud of it. Much of the reason I do anything in this web world, blog and Etsy is because of Jemellia. I am thrilled to continue our collaboration. Many thanks!!

It was Once July

My dear friend Brook gave me this spontaneously during book club last week. She saw it, thought of me and got it for me. It just made me cry. For someone to just know you like that is the connection I long for when I am low. Thank you dearest Brook.

Friendship is vital to me. I bought a gift for a friend last week. I just don't know what it is yet. I love these two necklaces from Tammy Gilley . I intended one for me and one for my friend but I simply cannot choose which to give and which to keep...That is a high class problem, huh?

I have been buying lots of necklaces lately and decided to display them on this bust form. She greets me of a morning in my bathroom. I bought her recently. Probably need to quit dragging things home but this is my new girlfriend and she is fabulous.

Here are some other finds less pretty but beautiful and interesting to me. I love both the high and a low in a room. It reflects me and all that implies.

I find my friends to be more essential than almost any other thing. Well, that and all the stuff...