Friends and Vacations and Weddings

I don't take many vacations; I rarely even take time off from work except for the occasional Doctor's visit. The main reason for this is that I'm pretty much flat broke. Losing my job in 2008 caused a serious set back in my financial situation, and not being able to find a job for almost 5 years depleted the coffers down to zero. I'm not sure I'll ever recover financially. Vacations are just not in the budget as there is no budget except to stay alive, keep my house and pay the bills. There's nothing left over.

One thing I'm filthy rich in however, are the friends I have.

I have a friend I never even met face-to-face until September of last year, although we worked together for many years at the company that laid me off. She lives in Oregon and I live in Texas. She retired about 3 months before I was laid off, but we remained friends, talking about our cats and other news of the day as we exchanged weekly emails, birthday gifts, Christmas gifts, and, after my finances hit rock bottom, birthday cards and Christmas cards. It was a most pleasant surprise when she emailed me she was getting married to her partner of 49 years and wanted me to be at their wedding. With her help, and the help of another friend I'll write about next, I was able to fly to Portland, OR. There she greeted me with a sign that just said 'CAT' and I was able to see these two remarkable women finally able to cement the bonds they swore oh so many years ago and, more importantly, be recognized. I had an amazing time, although not nearly long enough, but it included a wonderful stay at Seaside, OR, (which reminded me how much I miss the scent of the sea) and a tour of downtown Portland - with the added bonus of an amazing play/film produced by a company at the Young Vic in England of 'Streetcar Named Desire' with Gillian Anderson (wow - amazing production!). I flew back feeling I'd been gone much longer than I really was. It was wonderful.

I have a friend I've known since the 7th grade when we were in Sunday School together. Steve wore these large, black glasses and was a skinny guy with a wicked sense of humor. One day, and I don't remember what prompted this, but he jumped up in the middle of a Sunday School class and whipped off those black glasses with one hand and his tie with the other. A few of us recognized it as a 'Superman' move and cracked up. We were both journalists on our high school newspaper and at one point he began dating the Editor of the paper. His best friend was my boyfriend and the four of us would double date. As most often happens when you graduate and move away to whatever college or university you've chosen for your higher learning, the four of us went separate ways. Somehow through some miracle Steve and I stayed in contact - he tells me I'm the sister he never had. He's the one who anted up the remainder of my trip to Oregon, making it possible to attend the wedding last year. Then several years ago I reconnected with Marian, the woman Steve dated way back when and we renewed our friendship. I helped her move back from Florida about 4 years ago - just her and I, plus an orange cat named Murray, in a Prius, furiously trying to outrun a hurricane. I will end this narrative by saying at a point a couple of years ago, I got them back together and they were married on May 2 of this year.

So, where's the vacation in this story? Well, she was offered a job, no - a huge career boost - at her old company in Florida as a Vice-President and Chief Legal Officer. (BTW - did I mention she's a lawyer?) So, yeah, on July 3rd we loaded up in two cars this time, stuffed a cat carrier between boxes (different cat - this one a smokey-grey - named Boo) in the back seat of that same Prius and drove back to Florida. I then stayed for another week, walking beaches, helping him look at prospective houses, shopping, swimming and eating way too much good food. It was perfect. The perfect vacation until the last day when I had to bid them farewell, get on an airplane (with a ticket he paid for - oh, did I mention he's a retired publisher and entrepreneur?) and come back home. To work. What a tremendous let down.

This, and several other people/incidences I haven't mentioned, have helped me 'get by with a little help from my friends'. I've got some of the absolutely best friends anyone could hope to have in the world and I'm so grateful for them all. They bring me joy and a sense of companionship and camaraderie and love. I hope to be able to go back to Oregon someday. I also have tentative plans to head back to Florida in the somewhat near/distant future with yet another friend who's been nothing but supportive of me as well (someday I'll tell the story of Duchess and I going to the State Fair of Texas last September...a story not to be missed...). Maybe in January of 2016. To the Florida Keys. I'm already trying to save a little every month for it. I want to smell the sea again. And walk on the beach. And be with friends I love.