A Love Letter to Great Friends

A toast to all the friends who have helped and who continue to help me pick up the pieces:

To Cynthia, who cooked me chana masala and distracted me with her gory knee and offered me "the good tissues" when I finally let some tears fall;

To Karl who bought food for my fridge and was the only reason I couldn't call myself penniless;

To Vics who sent me tea and chocolate and an addition to my Sparkle Wall and inspiration via karaoke, and to K. who continues to send me postcards that make me smile;

To Katie who lets me jiggle her baby;

To Joy who sent me a symbolic picture to hang, and who somehow knew that I would also need a hammer to hang it with;

To Kim who literally offered to adopt me, and would have sent me the plane ticket and official membership into her crazy family had I only given the word, and who did it all while making me feel like her "Augusten Burroughs" instead of "charity case";

To Alex who believes in the healing powers of a Bollywood night;

To Caroline who heard it all before anyone else, and didn't even wince;

To Tug who introduced me to Sark;

To Silvia who has a big heart, and who would drive 1000km round-trip and put me up in her own apartment just to remind me that I have people who love me in Ottawa;

To Ms. Mac and Antipo who cheered me with their creative swear-words;

To Stella & Ewan & Napoleon, who sent me worldly postcards;

To Helen who was immediately generous, and then sent sweets and whatever happiness could fit into an envelope;

To Miss Great Dane, who sent me a lovely hand-made card and some desperately-needed posters for my glaringly white bedroom wall;

To the Handsome Man in Yellow who has been both confider and confidant;

To Moxey who sent watercolours and love;

To Deeleea who sent me courage in the post, and better yet, has continued to foster it during our many time-warped chats;

To Vince and to Serendipity who sent speedy kind words;

To Rod who is my self-appointed superman and will be here when I need him;

To Colleen and Beth who both sent their own amazing photography to adorn my walls and combat the ugly in my room;

To Kat E who sent me Marie Laveau's House of Voodoo Good Luck (bad luck) egg and took my subsequent ribbing good-naturedly;

To Van who sent me my very own Kill the Goat CD;

To Jude and Moogie who keep me sane with their emails;

To Rhys who keeps me grounded;

To Eclecta who loaned me books and gave me treasured photos and told me that I would survive;

To the many I've surely forgotten (please, let me know);

And to all of you, who come and read despite the fact that being internet-less has meant less frequent posting and less frequent visiting of all my favourite blogs, and who click on ads to put pennies in my pockets and leave me comments that assure me I'm not half as crazy as I think -

A big thank you, to friends in many forms, who remind me that I am not alone.

Because of you, I count blessings instead of tears.

xx