my friends

Today I can't say enough about my friends.
Growing up homeschooled and super religious, I didn't really have friends. There were people around all the time but church people mostly. Super religious adults, many of them oddballs--anti-government nuts, Bible thumpers, misogynists, creeps. Some okay ones, but not many. My sisters were around. My parents. Our house was not the kind of place where people hung out. There were too many rules, too much judgment. One minute teen-age you was cooking dinner and the next your father was freaking out because the food you were cooking him burned and he had asthma and you ruined his dinner and he almost died from smoke inhalation. My sisters and I had each others' backs and we hung out a lot and probably saved each others lives--we truly did--but I didn't have friends in my life really, people who chose to like me and accepted my weirdness and teased me but loved me anyway.
Flash forward to now and I'm lucky enough to have friends, good friends, and lots of them.
I don't take that lightly. It's a treasure.
There's the couple who I've traveled the world with, gotten drunk and stony and giggly with, laughed through Manhattan and Miami and London and Seattle and Vancouver, who give me kisses and hugs and manhattans and lots of love.
There are quirky ones, the drunk poet who thrashes through life with an abandon that I envy; the intellectual artist who texts me the occasional sonnet; the dark-eyed bartender-painter-poet; the bohemian MC making a living in kitchens and onstage; the hunky charmer, making art and music in a basement studio on the hill.
There's my football friends, the short-short writer usually shaking off a hangover to talk writing and sports in a dark, noisy sports bar; the super fit pal with a colorful fashion sense and wry shoot-from-the-hip sense of humor and million dollar smile.
The traveler, a lovely bright-eye always down to drink whisky out on the town or split a bottle of wine over a quiet night in, pragmatic and prepared and a frequent angel.
There's my hipster cool friend, a photographer who knows the right drink and the coolest technology and loves nothing more than packing a house with all of us and her lovely partner for friendcation.
There's the fun-loving single mom, my girl, a tequila aficionado with a smile and a laugh that warms my heart as much as her cooking.
There's my bearded bear buddy, one of my favorite partners for a night of barhopping and heart to hearts over LIIT's and vintage pornos on a firelit deck.
There's the single dad pal who I went through the divorce wars with, who keeps me honest and chauffeurs me to trivia nights and the movies and sometimes just to the liquor store.
There's the wild-haired musician I met at a gay club with magical cooking skills and eyes like melted chocolate.
And so many more--I could go on for pages and --
I feel so lucky.