One For the Bird's Nest

This is a very special day because it is the day one of my favorite people in the world was born (27 years ago today--YAY!!). So, this blog is a tribute to the beautiful, hilarious, smart and talented, FABULOUS, Sharon Bruen...My friend.

From the moment we met, I knew we'd be friends. How could I not be friends with a person who told corny jokes and practiced tap dancing under her desk during class? I used to love spending the night at her house in middle school--We'd stay up all night eating Kraft macaroni and cheese and watching horror movies. We'd tease our bangs, tight roll our jeans and talk about everything from boys and school to our plans for the future and the latest Days of Our Lives episodes. We spent afternoons writing fan mail to an actor from Don't Tell Mom the Baby-sitter's Dead and driving our parents crazy speaking Offengloffish (a secret language we made up with our friends.) We passed our summer days hanging out at the neighborhood pool or meeting boys at Taylors Elementary, dreaming about when we'd finally be old enough to get our driver's licenses and stay out late....Those carefree days in middle school turned into the angst-filled teenage years when Sharon and I parted ways to go to separate schools. We still cried on each other's shoulders as much as we always had and got hyper enough to laugh (at jokes only we could understand) until our bellies ached! Even though we didn't run in the same circles, we still managed to get invited to proms at each other's schools and watched each other endure relationships with boys and family members and friends. Still dreaming of being older and more independent, we worked and played away a few more years. College found us heading even farther apart. Sharon moved to Ohio to go to college while I stayed in the south to go to school. We saw each other less, but our friendship never really changed much. I always knew that no matter how much time passed without us talking, I could get in touch with her out of the blue and we could just pick up where we left off.

I remember making a pact with Sharon when we were little that when we "grew up" and got married to Catholics :o), we would live across the street from each other and dig a tunnel under the road to secretly meet and "sneak away from our husbands". It's hard to believe that we really ARE grown up now! We're both married to Catholic men, too....and even though we don't live anywhere near each other, sometimes I feel like she really IS right across the street. Only, instead of meeting in our secret underground tunnel to sneak away from our husbands, we e-mail...and instead of being 11 year old girls worrying about boyfriends and our parents' rules, we are 27 and worrying about OUR boys and we're the ones MAKING the rules. How did we get so far apart in the world physically, but still somehow managed to stay on the same page with our faith and our commitment to our husbands and children?

Sharon is still the first and last person I talk to about everything. She is the rare kind of friend who tells it like it is without condemning you--the kind of friend who can make you laugh in the face of a tragedy without it feeling inappropriate. I have always been able to be "me" with her--crazy, corny, unstable--catty, cocky, insensitive, insecure, vulnerable--loud, scared, ornery, terrified or hysterical--whatever life has dictated for the moment...and she has always been the person who understands, who knows me best, who "knew me when", who knows it all and doesn't judge. She understands me when my husband can't. She encourages me when I question my parenting decisions. She "happens" to leave hilarious long messages on my answering machine when she doesn't even know how badly I need a laugh. I cherish her friendship with all of my heart. I am part of who I am because of her. We have grown up together and now we're raising our kids together. We live in our "grown-up worlds" trying to think of ways to hold back the clock and we find ourselves saying, "My, how time flies!"

Today, Sharon is lifting up an imaginary strawberry daquiri to toast her birthday and she is not alone. I, too, raise my glass to my fabulous friend from the "modified underground tunnel" between her house and mine and say HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHARONA! Wax-on wax-off, Koneecheewah and "I-Got-Five-Thousand-Dollars!" Congratulations on 27 amazing years! You are important. You matter. You have made more of a mark on this world than you will ever know! Offi Loffove Yoffou!

CHEERS!