friendship

Party Like It’s 2018!

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

I turned 60 years of age on Friday, July 13. A party was had and here are some photos from it. Everyone who meant something to me was there. But of course, there were a handful who could not make it. They had decent excuses and they were sorely missed. (They know who they are!) Dinner was at Kim-Son Restaurant, 2001 Jefferson, Houston, Texas. I had the shrimp egg foo young. We started out with Vietnamese egg rolls, the crispy ones that come with the fish sauce and cilantro and lettuce leaves. Honestly, I could have just eaten plates full of those all night long. Top left photo, clockwise from bottom left, Hilda, Mary-Ellen, Barbara, Chuck, Rosemary, Theresa, Lola, me. Photo copyright Mario Maciel, all rights reserved. Top right photo, Loka, Joni, Jill. Photo copyright Judith Tarpey, all rights reserved. Middle left photo, Mario and Hilda. Photo copyright Judith Tarpey, all rights reserved. Middle right photo, yours truly. Photo copyright Mario Maciel, all rights reserved. Bottom left and bottom right photos, copyright Kim-Son Restaurant, used with permission.

Fighting the Good Fight

This is for my cherished best friend. (He knows who he is.) Always fight the good fight, never give less than 100% of your totally awesome self. Love you, man. The nights you fight best are when the game is fixed, when the crowd screams for your blood. The nights you fight best are on a night like this as you chase a thousand dark rats from your brain, as you rise up against the impossible, as you become a brother to the tender sister of joy and move on regardless. ~~ Charles Bukowski

One Lucky Bitch

I just have to put this out there. Like the title says, I am one lucky bitch. One supremely blessed fool. And like most humans, ninety-nine percent of the time, I’m completely oblivious to just how fortunate I am. Until it seems I may lose that which I have taken for granted. And for that transgression, sometimes I think I don’t deserve what I have. Don’t deserve my wonderful husband or my best friend or my nice life or my well-paying job. Any or all of those could be gone tomorrow. Some of that is within my control and some isn’t. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not ALL peaches and cream here. But it’s certainly not BAD. So there are a few people I should thank more often and appreciate more often than I do.

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I Know.

Four years ago, I *might* have been able to tell you where Yugoslavia once was. But I didn’t know the difference between the Rambouillet Agreement and Shakespeare’s sonnets. Four years ago, I didn’t know that someone I would come to love so very much had spent 72 days in pure hell. Had spent his birthday in a bomb shelter. I didn’t know how selfish and arrogant the United States was. And how it lied. Sweet beguiling lies. “Humanitarian reasons,” said the war monger Madeleine Albright. As the U.S. then proceeded to bomb the roads, powerplants and water supplies of the very people, civilians, women and children, it vowed to be “saving”. Smiling all the while. The good thing is that a little over three years ago, all that changed. I woke up. With some help from a friend. He showed me that despite all the obstacles, neither he nor his people will be kept down, and they won’t lie down, and they won’t go away. From this wonderful friend, for whom I would give my very life, I have come to know what trust, kindness, patience, acceptance, truth, honor, selflessness and love are all about. I know all this now, …

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Antidote to Sadness… My Best Friend

I sat down with my morning cup of tea (Assam, from leaves, with honey and lemon, yumm!). And started reading the news of the day. It really got me down, nothing but sadness and grief and strife. Humans doing inhuman things to one another. So I thought of one of the few things in the world that makes me happy. (Besides my husband and my chubby little cat.) My best friend in the world. (He knows who he is.) So this is for you. For all the times you’ve forgiven me for screwing up or making you sad or angry. For being patient with me when someone with less patience would have murdered me. For always being there for me, no matter what your mood is. For enriching my life in little ways, and in huge ways that you probably cannot even imagine. For teaching me new things. For loving me exactly the way I am, warts, faults and all. Most of all for being you. Gentle, sweet, smart, kind, brutally honest, talented …. There just isn’t enough time in eternity to list every wonderful thing about you… So in case you forget, or I don’t say it often enough: …

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