With a husband and kids and a mortgage to pay, it's hard to find time for myself much less time to have good, healthy relationships with my girlfriends. I suck at phone conversations, and I'm not very good at making the occasional G.N.O. a priority. My friendships are primarily formed and maintained by proximity. If they are in my face, they are on my mind and in my loop.Before my friends get too fired up, "Whoa, Nelly!" I do have some of the absolute BEST friends in the whole, wide world. God has blessed me with some amazing friendships. In every phase of my life, there were some incredible friendships involved with my fondest memories. Friendship and girl-bonding are very important to me.
When I'm down in the dumps, my girls keep me from drinking the poisoned Kool-Aid. When I need to borrow a dollar for my morning Coke Zero on a day when I ran out of the house without my caffeine, I know I have a friend to hook me up. When I dye my hair pineapple yellow on the day before school starts, my girlfriends are on the 4-1-1. Seriously...my Besties are the best!
I have to tell you, though. My best friend, Harriett, and I have a very weird relationship. We don't talk on the phone because texting is far less time-consuming. We don't "do lunch" except when we happen to have the same lunch schedule at work. I probably saw her less than a handful of times over our summer break. We don't spend time together because our schedules just don't allow it. Yet, our bond is pretty tight. We have one very strange interest that keeps us thick as thieves.
We diet together. Swear. That's what we do. That's what we talk about. She gives me tips on what to do at the gym. Her husband is the master slave driver who orchestrates the whole thing, but she and I keep each other accountable. I know that if I'm about to hit the Dairy Queen, she can text me down. Her having to keep me straight (because I'm the one who's always looking for a loophole and chocolate) helps keep her straight. It's a win-win.
We are both consumed with our weight -- how much we've gained, how much we've lost, how far away we are from our college fighting weight. Some weight loss "techniques" we've pondered? Wiring our jaws shut, getting deathly ill, using meth until reaching our ideal weight then have our families call in a professional interventionist, using Alli with Depends (for those uncontrollably explosive bowels), anorexia, bulimia, in-home liposuction machines from eBay...the list goes on and on. Literally.
Don't worry; we aren't doing any of it. It makes for good conversation and lots of laughter, though. I'm pretty sure if we didn't diet together, we'd still be friends. The dieting is the "hook," but the laughter is what keeps us BFFs.
Oh, I need to text her now. I think I lost 3 lbs. this week on the chicken and asparagus diet! She'll be proud...or she'll want to stab my eyeballs out.
