On Friends

I apologize, dearest blog readers, for my whine-filled last post. April is a hard month for me, but that doesn't mean I need to cry to the seven of you fabulous people that read this blog. Please forgive me.

In an effort to change my whining ways and try to tough out the rest of this (horrid) month, I'm going to focus on the great things in life. To start out this positive mojo kick, I want to give a shoutout to some of the most important people in my life: my friends.

I must say, I am incredibly lucky to have a amazing group of friends. I have had some tough times over the years, but my friends have always been there for me, no matter how grumpy, sad, lonely, boring and occasionally just plain nuts I've been. My friends would show up, good wine in hand, and let me be as much of a pain as I can be.

Even as of recently, I had a pretty rough day, complete with sick puppies (no, not these guns, but an actual sick puppy), work craziness and emotional stress, and my friend didn't even hesitate to offer to ease my mind with some good wine, and even a punch in the throat to whoever it was causing me the grief. Now, that is friendship.

We have an understanding: when someone is hurting, you help. If you're hurting, you can ask for help, anytime, anyday, no matter how inconvenient.

A couple weeks ago, a friend of ours had an unexpected, sad event happen to his family. After the initial tears were shed, our friends wasted no time getting together to figure out a way to help that friend and his family in their time of need. Within 24 hours, we had collected a nice chunk of change to help them through their hard time. Even though some of us are, how do you say, "unemployed," and others of us struggle to meet mortgage and house bill demands, we put our own stuff aside and got together to help. Not just any friends would do that.

On top of all of this, my friends even still like me after all the bitching, crying and (eventually) bragging I've done about my little shack that could. And let me tell you, I've talked/whined/grumbled/shouted about that place A LOT!

Hell, they even put up with the millions of "look how cute my mangy mutts are" pictures. I'm even beginning to bug MYSELF with all those pictures.

So, to you, my friends, I say from the bottom of my heart, Thank You. Without you, I don't know where I'd be, when my next fun adventure would come, who I would turn to or who would go wine tasting with me this weekend.

I love you guys.

Oh, April, how I loathe thee...

Well, it's that time of year again. The dreaded April.

One would think that it would be a month full of fun, as the sun finally begins to shine and dreams of spring break dance in our heads.

But not for this gal. April has, sadly, been notorious for bad news. And it's not just for me. This month has been filled with unfortunate events, the passing of friends' loved ones and extremely random bad news. It's only the 14th and I am already wishing it was time to flip the calendar to May.

It hasn't always been this way. It is the most unfortunate anniversary that this April 30th will be five years since the last time I saw my pops. He drifted out of consciousness at our house after a tedious and heartbreaking battle with cancer. The doctors gave him six months to a year, he barely made it through four months. It is hard to fathom that it has been five years already. I still miss him as though it was yesterday. Things have gotten easier, sure, but there are so many things I wish I could share with him. I mean, I am not sure anyone would have been as proud of the home improvement project we have embarked on as he would. As friends get married and have babies, it's a pretty sad thing to know that if that happens for me, he won't be there to celebrate (or kick me down the aisle to hurry things up in the marriage department). He was always the one trying to marry me off to the first taker. Thanks, pops.

Since that dreadful day five years ago, April has proven to be a consistent bad news month.

There have been DUI's for friends, serious car accidents ending up in hospital stays, extremely scary premature births, deaths of family members and neighbors, and many other bummers.

I apologize for being such a world class bummer factory today, but I figure if you get out the bad vibes, the good vibes will move back in. I'm just hoping I can make it through the 30th without having to see a shrink. Or emptying my wine fridge.

I say we go ahead and skip right to May. Sorry, April birthdays, better luck next year.