Gratitude...

I have a lot of acquaintances, and very few friends.  

I can usually recognize a kindred spirit, and with those individuals, I instantly connect.  On the other hand, I can also usually sense when I am being judged or graded by someone upon first introduction and with those people, I am uncomfortable and unnatural whenever I am in their presence, and those feelings never go away.  

I felt that way when I first met my husband-instant connection, I looked at him, walked over and spilled my guts.  

I felt the opposite way upon meeting most of his family members...

Another instant connection to Jill, who defines the phrase  "forever friend".  I was on my first day on the job as a preschool teacher,  and I was monitoring the playground.  The staff at the school was unwelcoming, the director was cold and the parents were demanding... I had not had the best first day.   I was wondering what I had gotten myself into, and if I could just scale the chain-link fence, army crawl over to my car and take off, never to come back. 

 As I was planning my escape, over walks this little, tiny thing with a giant smile on her face.  "Hi, I'm Jill, everyone here is crazy, so if you ever want to talk to someone sane, I'm in Preschool Room Two."  She laughed ( a little maniacally), gave me a little wave and walked off.  We have been close friends ever since. 

When we moved up to MA, I had to leave behind the few friends that had made it into the "inner circle of trust", and I was very, very sad (I would use the "D" word to describe my feelings, but we are in the middle of an adoption process :)).  We moved up here in September, right as it was starting to get frigid, and it took me a long time to meet anyone that a) wanted to be my friend and b) wasn't really, REALLY strange.  

But I had no choice, I had a daughter that needed interaction, and story time and play dates and swimming lessons... so I kept on leaving the house, every day.   I learned to navigate my way through not only Boston, but Providence and Worcester.  I learned where to park, where to eat and how to avoid rush hour on I-90 (you can't avoid it).  I learned what beaches never have parking and which ones had clean restrooms, and along the way I began to gather friends.  Women that accept my daughter and I for all our quirks.  Women that laugh at my dumb, dumb jokes and make me really gut laugh in return.  Women that hug me when I feel like crying.   I am so very thankful for each of them.

Moving on...

FaerieMama tagged me (my very first tag, thanks!) last week and I thought I would give it a go.

Here are the rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you and post the rules.

2. Share seven random or weird facts about yourself.

3. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post with their links.

4. Let each person know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Here we go...

1.  I am a terrible, terrible cook.  My husband cannot STAND my cooking, as a matter of fact, so he does most of it.

2.  All through my childhood (and still occasionally) I will bite and chew my clothing when angry.  I don't know why, but it is  very soothing to me and I have to consciously stop myself now.

3.  My first words to my husband were a slurred, "I'm wearing a girdle....hehe" at a Christmas Party in December 1998.  And he still married me, although it did take almost 4 more years to get him down the aisle.

4. I became a nurse because I am a hypochondriac.  (Little tip to all the hypochondriacs out there- W*bMD is NOT your friend).

5. I was once on a plane with Huey Lewis.  I am not sure if "& The News" was also on the plane because I wouldn't be able to recognize any of them if they were bludgeoning me to death with their records.    Huey was very thin, FYI

6. I was mugged in my twenties and ever since then, I cannot stand people walking behind me.

7. I am 50% Puerto Rican, and the only outward sign of this is my incredible amount of body hair.  Nair is my friend.

I am now going to tag my lovely friend Lydia !  

If anyone made it through this LOOOONG post, Thank you!