What would you do for a friend ... or a klondike bar. If they still make 'em.

So my friend Gary posts, "What would you do for a friend?"

It reminded me of the times I've spent with my very precious friend, LB.
She frequently talks me into doing ridiculous things to spare her the imagined embarrassment or other such awfulness. The last one that comes to mind was when we vacationed in Bennington, Vermont last spring.

We rented the most glorious vacation condo- basically a duplex- and we settled ourselves right in. Opened a bottle of wine, made some cookies (just those break-the-squares and bake things), spread our crap out around the place. And then she discovered- horrors- the wireless internet connection wasn't working. LB will DIE without her interwebs. She's like a shark that needs to keep swimming or it will sink to the bottom of the sea. She was afraid to call the fine gentleman we were renting the condo from, Norm, because, and this is a direct quote, "what if he shows up in a Nazi uniform?" I assured her that if Norm indeed showed up at our place wearing full Nazi regalia to fix our internet connection, I would shout obscenities at him and kick him in the balls. Needless to say, Norm was dressed quite normally and was delightful, staying on the phone with the local internet supplier for at least 30 minutes to get the connection figured out.

We were so young then ... and drunk.

LB was supposed to come visit this weekend but her car punched her in the butt with an enormous amount of repairs so we've had to postpone our fun. I'd been mentally preparing myself, so now I have this void where her craziness should've been. Everyone should have a friend you can be completely yourself with, someone you can tell the oddest, awfullest things about yourself to, who just nods & says, "well, that isn't so bad. Don't ever tell this to anyone else, though, okay?" LB is one of the few people in my world that I am totally and completely comfortable with, who sympathizes with me and gets my insanity, and I miss her somethin' horrible.

One thing I was looking forward to was FINALLY giving her the birthday gift that the wonderful Gary Rith made for me, all the way back in February, when I thought I might mail it to her. To rip her sadness a new a-hole, I promised her I'd send her photos of the gift, so I will do that tomorrow and post it here.