Girlfriends and other ravings

I started this post thinking I was going to write all about how important it is to have girlfriends and how glad I am to have the ones I've already got (be they knitting girlfriends or otherwise).

THEN I got that little tickle in the back of my brain that reminded me that there's one of those horrid junkmail things that covers the very same topic which got me off on the the following rant. Please forgive the rant-before-the-interesting-post that follows.

Let's start out with this: I hate junk mail. Prayers, baby pics (of the Anne Geddes type), tearjerker stories that are often Christian based and those "forward this or your house will burn down" emails are nothing but a nuisance. Please don't hate me for this. If you've sent me junk mail in the past, don't worry, I'm SOOO VERY NOT MAD at you. I don't think there's anything worng with those individuals who forward that dreck, I just hate being on the recieving end.

Why?? You might ask? Because I get all excited that I've gotten an email from a friend when their name shows up in my inbox and then I'm totally disappointed when it says "FW:blah blah drivel" in the subject line. I would so much rather get a one liner that says "Hi, I don't have anything new to report, I just wanted you to know I was thinking about you and hope you're well."

So, please don't send me junk. I'm already cleaning out about 80 spam messages a day. I would love to hear from you, even if you've got nothing to say.

That being said, girlfriends are important. I love having them and I don't spend enough time with them. I love my friends dearly and I wish I was a better friend as far as being available and spending time together. I guess part of that is the newly wed syndrome (it's only been a year and a few months) so I'm still crazy about my DH (which I hope stays that way forever despite life's ups and downs). Even so, here's a public apology to all my girlfriends that I don't see or talk to often enough. I'm sorry and I'll try not to suck so badly in the future.

Last Monday, my girlfriend "R" who is pictured here on the bottom right had surgery. She had her thyroid removed and I took both Monday and Tuesday off of work to be with her. You see her (biological) family is very far away and could not travel to Chicago to be with her. So her Chicago family was there in the waiting room breathlessly awaiting word to hear that she was alright. She is alright and came out of surgery looking as beautiful as she does in this picture, if a little groggy (I wish I looked as good as her when I came out of thyroid surgery in 1995!).

The Saturday morning before, we all got together to celebrate her birthday at a really yummy Mexican restaurant that has awesome food and beautiful decor. It's called Hay Caramba! in downtown Park Ridge, IL. I'm told it used to be a much smaller place but they've moved across the street and they're still in the process of getting beautiful handpainted trees on the walls but it's just gorgeous and the best part is: you can't smoke in the restaurant! (Sorry to my smoking friends, but that makes me really happy!)

So here we are last week (I know, I'm slow) celebrating a belated birthday for R. We love her and I'm so lucky to have friends like her. :)