Friends

They say that a good friend will bail you out of jail, but a TRUE friend will be sitting right next to you.

As one gets older, you evaluate your life. You pick through every aspect of your life with a fin toothed comb. You realize that you are not as young as you once were. You lose a certain amount of friends once you are married. Couple become so involved with each other that a lot of relationships with friends are put on the back burner. God forbid you have children. Then all your single friends really want nothing to do with you. You become aged. You no longer do all the fun and crazy things you did pre-children. You don't go to the bars, you don't stay out at house parties and keggers until all hours. You just are there. All of your free time is consumed by the wonderful miracles of life we call children.

Then, some of your friends come to call again. They realize that you really aren't that different than you were before. You are the same person, you just have "mini-me's" running around. You may be a little more tired than you used to be, but generally, not much has changed.

I have lost friends before simply to the fact that I am a young mother. You feel like you have wasted years of your life on creating a bond of friendship that walks out the door at the drop of your hat. Then, eventually, you make new friends. The kind of friends that you have desired to have your whole life. When you call and tell them something horrible has happened, instead of saying, "Oh, that sucks," they say, "What can I do to help?" Why are those friends so difficult to find? The ones that will help you move without hesitation. The kind of friends that will help you clean up your house and cook and set up for your daughter's 2nd birthday party. The kind that can change your toddler's poopy diaper without flinching. The ones that will pick you up somewhere seriously out of there way when you are totally stranded and your car breaks down.

Those people are so few and far between now. These people that are actually capable of loyalty and true friendship. They can be honest with you. They can tell you when you look fat in your favorite old pair of jeans or when you have some spinach in your teeth.

"It's not the quantity of friends that you have, it's the quality."

Keep your close friends close. Those people are rare diamonds in the rough and should be treated with the utmost respect and love. To my friends, the ones I can truly call friends, I raise my glass. I toast to your love, respect, honesty, loyalty and honor. Thank you for being my friends.