Statue of Liberty.

While single and over 30, I have some incredible friends who are my family here. They are my Statue of Liberty ladies, the ones who say "give me your tired, your poor . . . " and will be there. When a job review goes badly, they will be there to listen to me cry and will muster the anger for me. If a relationship goes wrong, they are there to tell me I was always too good for that anyway. And, if something great happens, they are going to buying tickets to the event to cheer. If its Wednesday and we made it over the hump, they will raise a glass. In short, they are the best.

My mom, Missy and I had dinner this spring. It was at dinner, that we realized that our generation is very different from those who preceding us and very lucky regarding our friends. A lot of us have moved away from our biological families to pursue our careers and have made our own little local families of girlfriends in our adopted homes. When my mom had her knees replaced, her mother came out to take care of her. When her mom had a knee replaced, my mom came to take care of her. Knowing that knee replacement is in my future, my mom pondered who would care for me if she was unable for some reason. To her generation, you would never ask a friend to deal with that. It is not a thought that would ever cross her mind. She has a lot of friends, but they are not such friends that she would ask them to see her at her very worst. For me, it would never cross my mind that my friends would not step up. Knee replacement is an ugly thing, with oozing, seeping, and a lot of pain. And, my girls would be there if my mom could not be. A lot of have seen me in the morning at the gym, half-awake and dripping with sweat. Some of them have seen me bereft with disappointment. These are my girls. If I were to die unexpectedly, I know that my friends would do me the courtesy of browbeating my landlords to let them in to tidy my place up so that my parents would not have to deal with that in their grief. Its just what friends do in our era.

Today was an annoying day for me and I just wanted to get out of the office. Missy sympathized and offered up sushi, prosecco and Project Runway if I felt like coming over. Could not imagine better on this rainy Thursday evening. I went home to change and to chill some bubbs before heading over to her place. There is something important about having a friend who knows you well enough to accept you in your sweats, to order food and drinks prosecco, watch TV and have a perfectly lovely, rainy Thursday night.