Under the Teflon Couch

Friends

I used to believe that you can't trust someone who doesn't have friends. Now, I have come to realize that you really can't trust people who can't be a friend. Friendship is a wonderful, wonderful gift. I am blessed to have been given some of the best gifts in the world in my friends. Friends will rush to their blog to comfort you the second they sense despair, tell you you look hot in shoes that weren't even cool in 1982, and most of all friends will remind you that you have friends and they give you an opportunity to be a friend, to give the gift of yourself.
Every friend plays a different role on our stage of life. There are friends who you see everyday, who share your life with you right now, who you study with, work with, live with. They get you through the day and help you look forward to what can be mundane activities.
There are friends who you seldom see, but often think of. You chat online, blog, help them when they are playing a sad role. They help you get through life. The hard stuff, the great stuff, but sometimes not the in between stuff. To me, these relationships are priceless. You know, it's the friend you don't talk to in a year, but when you do you instantly feel lucky to have them, like they have been there all the time.
What is even better is when you can do that for someone. When they are celebrating, struggling, hurting, loving, you can be a small part of it. I often feel guilty for not being able to see my friends enough, But I am realizing that we don't have to be there to be friends, we just have to be there.
I started to realize how important it is to be a great friend. Friendship teaches us to care, to be honest, to let people know how awesome they are, how great they will be. Friendship teaches us to lean on people, to let them help. We can't do it on our own, not the way it should be done. Life is meant to be shared, wisdom is meant to be shared, people are meant to be shared. We do this through being a friend. People who can't give themselves to others can't understand that sometimes we have to take. I forget this often, its hard to take sometimes, but I know that by taking, you are letting someone else give. You are letting them be a friend. It feels good to give, we shouldn't deny our friends the right to give to us what they have to share. Enjoy your friends, enjoy being a friend.

Too good to be true

"Moments of their secret life together burst like stars upon his memory."
"The Dead" James Joyce
What do you do when you realize that something that you thought was too good to be true, is. Do you keep going, enjoying every remaining second as you enjoyed it when you hoped and thought it would last; hoped and thought it was real? Do you protect yourself and start starting over again; now? Do you hang on longer than you know you should, but not as long as you want to? You knew it from the start; that little voice inside that says "this is too good to be true," or at least more than I deserve--too good for me. Do you appreciate it, him, for what he is and what he has taught you. You hope you can be that strong, but you know that all you will think about is that, although you have learned that there are truly great people, great men, that there isn't another him. Not even an imitation. We never know what life holds for us--thats what makes it fun--but when you find something better than you could ever imagine you want to keep it. You have faith that things will be as they should, but you can't help the hurt. Its selfish to want to keep him for yourself, selfish to even think it when you know that he is meant to be shared, meant for greatness. The feeling makes me remember "The Dead." I hated it when I first read it. I was told I would begin to appreciate it later. I do. Every time I think about real, meaningful relationships, I think of Gabriel and feel what he must have felt, what Joyce wanted us to feel. The snow, the lonliness, the despair. Such is life, such is living, such is love.

Celebration

Why don't we have Christmas lights all year long?

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

I will be in Savannah this weekend if anyone is interested in a latte or a beer! I have to do community service Saturday morning, but should be free Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday! Let me know if you are available and want to ketchup! Sorry for the short notice. Brandi, since you are a downtowner now, give me some not-so-tourist tips on places to hang out, I like your taste. Thanks, hope to see you!

Under the Teflon Couch

A few short and long months ago, I was sitting on my couch with a strange stranger. As we were getting to know each other, and as I was being reintroduced to myself, I disclosed the fact that my couch is coated with Teflon. Yeah, I know Teflon causes cancer, but what's a clumsy girl to do. Anyways, I can't remember the nature of the conversation, but somehow one of us said "under the Teflon couch," and I really liked the way it sounded. The I started thinking, a "Under the Teflon couch" is a really great metaphor for life.
The couch is the centerpiece of the living room. The room where we live: where life happens. We sit on it, sleep on it, make-out on it (I know you want me to talk about my liking of bodily fluids, but I only do that on other people's blogs), eat on it, watch t.v. on it, figure out our lives on it. It is the heart of the home; it's a good thing mine is coated in Teflon.
In life--on the couch--we have to take the good with the bad. Hopefully, we can wipe away the stains of the bad; even though a barely visible spot may remain, we can erase most of the eyesore. Coat yourself in Teflon, don't let the bad things stick. Remember them, learn from them, revisit them if necessary, but wipe them away from your couch--your centerpiece.
There will always be dust under the couch. As I said in an earlier post, I think they are part of what makes us who we are, but don't let them be a part of our centerpiece--our couch--keep them in their place under the couch, to eventually be swept away.

Have a great afternoon. Comment and tell me what you have done on your couch lately (within reason.)

It's a Beautiful Day

I woke up this morning at 6, started proofing and finishing up my appellate brief, had a Starbuck's double shot, had another Starbuck's double shot, and then went to school. Once I drove onto the overly crowded parking lot and MY spot in the grass was taken, I knew what was about to happen. I had already skipped my 8:30 Contracts class and the search for a parking spot was all I needed to persuade me to skip Torts (I hate Torts.) Long story short, I went home, loaded my computer that I forgot (maybe on purpose), and pretended to go to school. I didn't make it. I had Malinda day instead, and it was great.
I used to hate that I could blow things off so easily, just waking up and decided to do or not to do something, but now it is one of my favorite things about me. Life is too short to not take advantage of a beautiful day, a walk in the park, chocolate, beer, dominos, gardening, whatever. Of course, if it was something really important and I skipped it I might have issues I need to confront, but just a normal day of school--who cares. The joy I got out of laying out in the warm Florida sun, on the 6th floor of the parking garage, in the heart of downtown Jacksonville, probably giving everyone in the skyscrapers around a nice show, is, I'm sure, more than I would've gotten out of a Strict Liability lecture.
Moral of the story, I had a great day doing nothing, doing everything. Sometimes you need to just say F it, I'm going to enjoy the day and there's nothing Torts can do about it. The only thing that would've made it better is if I would've been able to spend it with a certain sexy neighbor.