People

Have you ever wondered just how it is that people come in to your life? How some stay, some leave (quietly or painfully), and some that should be there, never were?

I have been seriously thinking lately about how very fortunate we've been in life, Goofy and I - especially where friends and family are concerned. I won't be spending too much blog time on these type of things, but it's been in my brain, screaming to get out, so here it is :)

I was thinking about this just the other day when I had a couple of v-mails from my really good friend (and honorary big brother - my honor, not so sure about him :), Jim. I'll get to that later...

Basically, we are all born into some kind of family - good, bad or indifferent - and then things progress from there. At first, we meet the folks our parents know...then, we start meeting people at school and stuff as we grow up. You all get that, it's not any kind of secret.

But I really think that it's the folks we take into our hearts as we go along that are our true family.

I am lucky enough to have several people in my life that are family to me - not of blood, but of choice. It's amazing to me how random some of those meetings were. The "what if I'd never been in that place at the moment" of much of it is enormous and overwhelming when I think of it.

Take Jim and Dewana, for instance. We met them through Jim & Judy Hopper, who we met when we were driving around one day looking at houses. We actually happened to be early to meet with a different real estate agent (not a good one, btw), and make an offer on another house - when we wandered into an open house that Judy was at. Fate, master plan, what? That relatively small decision to drive down the road to have a look at something while we waited, turned out to get us four very good friends. Scary that we may have missed that, and at the same time...was it meant to be? I could go all "kismet" on y'all, but you know what I'm talking about I think.

(We never did get back to that other house, either :)

Now, back to Jim. On the face of it, politically, Jim and I are about as unlikely as Rosie and Elizabeth to be friends (LOL, couldn't resist). He's a proud American Republican - and he's somewhat rare in my experience - a thinking Republican. I suspect that, for the most part, we don't agree on much politically. We both love our country, we just have different opinions on how things are going and the people that have been running the show of late (dem or rep).

Despite our political differences, he's one of our closest friends...someone (along with D :) that we can always rely on, and who we are always happy to see. He likes a cold (icy) beer on occasion, and a good BBQ. He and D awarded Goofy the honor of naming their youngest (dachshund), Opie. We all like the Seahawks, and sports memorabilia and that red velvet cake that D makes (that is SOOOO good!). I am still amazed at how seemingly random it was that he and D came into our lives. Amazed and grateful really.

I made a post a while back in this blog from Keith Olbermann. (I've since removed as I've decided that this blog is not about politics - it's on my MySpace now...lol). My good friend Jim had called to ask a question, and while he was at it, he commented on the post. Jim did not agree with some of the political message in Keith's op/ed piece. Here's the point, though. He called back to leave another message shortly thereafter. He was worried about hurting my feelings by what he'd said.....I was TOUCHED by that simple concern…… We both agree that that everyone has a right to their own opinions….and that means so much to me. I guess that's why he's my big brother. We agree to disagree...but we still like one another. I'm a REALLY lucky person.

Goofy and I have a fairly large circle of people that we consider good friends. Extremely fortunate, we are. Some are even family to us now (for good or for bad, it's up to interpretation I guess :), just as if we'd shared the same blood. You all - friends & family - should know who you are....but if not, send me an email and I'll tell you ;)

So, at the risk of being extremely sappy...thanks to all of you for being there...we are very fortunate to have each and every one of you in our lives, and we hope that we are being the kind of friends to you, that you have all been to us.

Enough, already...I see something shiney over there that I need to check out...

Love ya!