If you're lucky

This is a blog in tribute to my best girl -Princess Aly of the Princess and the Rockstar fame. I wrote that sentence, and, as it turns out - I'm not even sure how to adequately pay tribute to this woman. She's been my ally (HA!...that's sort of a play on words...HA!), my partner in crime, my conscious, my psychiatric care, and above all - unfailingly - my friend for over half my life. She's gotten me into trouble (okay, a little) - and gotten me OUT of trouble more times than I can count. She never tells me what I want to hear, and yet, somehow, she always says the right thing. Whether catching up over a couple of lattes or watching the sun disappear while we sip wine and laugh - there are very few things in the world that can touch the times that we've shared!

she's an amazing woman. She cares about the world and her community, she remains vigilantly aware and conscious, she's working in the hardest field that I can imagine, and she does it with hope and joy. She loves people, and animals. She's gone through a lot of pain and disenchantment - and she's prevailed, becoming more and more her true self every day that I've known her! She volunteers. And when a really stupid college boyfriend laughed at her ambition to run a marathon - she ran five! And the very best part...the part that I like best :) and what I can't believe most days - is that this singularly remarkable woman really likes me - sometimes even admires me, and that we've had this friendship - despite stupid partners, trying careers, moments where we've lost sight...for so long and through so much.

A few years ago - we'd had a couple of years where we weren't so close. Life happened, you know. But we were both deeply in need...and we caught up with each other on a hill in California...burst simultaneously into tears, and walked quickly and with determination to the bar. That evening will always define our friendship to me. And I hold it close in my heart. I think, in many ways - that's the day that I became a woman, and left my adolescent days behind.

I can't tell you really what the point of this blog is - why it was necessary to get these thoughts out there. Except that I'm just happy. I'm happy that life brought us both to Colorado - I'm happy that I am blessed enough to have a lady like this is in my life - a friend - and to see such a shining example of a woman who truly follows her bath with her eyes wide open. She is in the midst of a wonderful existence, and all the truly beautiful things that she has always deserved are happening - and my wish for her is that they continue everyday. However...for those days when it might not be so blissful - I'll be hanging around with a class or red :)

Congratulations Princess, and thank you.