ladies i love

for some reason i've been missing my girlfriends lately. i was chatting with susan in dc yesterday and told her as much. you know what she said? "okay, i will set up a fare tracker for SLC." seriously?! sweet! that would be fabulous. and you know what else is fabulous? my friend mandie c. is coming out in june with her super fun, generous husband mike. this photo below is from october when josh and i stayed with her in chicago (thanks mom and frank for watching the boys!) it was a wonderful time. she is the one person from high school that i keep in touch with (although i must give a shout out to sam s), and every time we're together it is exactly like old times even though we don't chat on the phone all the time or anything like that. i still think she probably knows me better, understands me better, than most people. and she's beautiful... see what i mean? now this other lovely lady is brooklyn herself, who i know i've blogged about before. she and her hubby and two cute girls were in utah and came for a visit. we were so happy to have them! i love b, and her husband dave, who i had only briefly met a few times before, is equally wonderful. brooklyn and i don't have a ton of shared experiences, aside from our semester being roomies in wash dc. but there's just this mutual love and understanding and respect and (on my part) wonder at this wonderful woman. josh and i would love to move to san fran just to hang out with them. plus, she too is beautiful...

again, see what i mean? i have other ladies i love, but they definitely don't come out of the wood work. girlfriends like these are hard to find, and worth holding on to. don't ask me how i con ladies as lovely as these, not to mention the likes of katie and susy q., et al, into being my friends. it's a mystery to me. other women are friends with me because we have kids the same age. others are friends with me because i was friends with their husbands. my three sisters, equally lovely, are just plain stuck with me. but then there's the rest and, well, it's a mystery to me...but regardless, i will challenge anyone who thinks they know a better group of women! (don't worry, i won't challenge you to a duel or anything, i'll just assume you haven't met the likes of these fair dames.)