THE BEST FRIEND I NEVER MET

Today is Allison's birthday! Yay! Happy birthday Allison!!

Over the years Allie has become one of my dearest and best friends. The kind of friend you can tell all your secrets to. Or anything at all. The kind of friend who sends you surprises in the mail that always seem to arrive just when you need them the most. The kind of friend whom you can cry about the guy that broke your heart with, or laugh your ass off with about the perils of internet dating. She was the one who told me, "meet them as soon as you can and just know that most of the time you'll be looking at the guy walking toward you who doesn't even resemble the picture of the guy you thought you were meeting and there will be a voice in your head going - not him, not him, please not him, but it will be." Boy was she right. I can tell Allison anything and she will not be shocked or judgmental. She is always supportive and loving and even when she's cranky she's still a great friend because she clues you in to the fact that she needs alone time. We can talk on the phone for hours and we have and this is notable because neither one of us like talking on the phone. At all. She is a terrific and talented writer/photographer/artist. She's a great cook who loves food as much as I do. She loves to read and knows all about the best books. She even knows great books about cooking and food. She's very independent and needs alone time which made this past year hard when she was recovering from surgery and had to let people help her.

But she's really smart about learning stuff about who she is and is constantly integrating new observations and behaviors to her repertoire of being so she is able to make lemons into lemonade and keep the recipe. She has made her life an ever more lovely place and continues to do so to this day.

So much so that she's made room for love and a man that she will marry next year. A good man.

I am so thrilled and happy for my friend Allison. She is a blessing in my life, and I marvel at our connection and how much fun we have knowing each other because we've never actually met!! I can only imagine how much fun we'll have when we finally get to hang out!

Happy day. Happy Year. Happy Life. Girl, you are the best!