Sweet home Chicago, with my best HO

Well people, I have made it to the Windy City. The friend that I came to see, T is teaching tonight, so I have a few hours to spare before she meets me. She teaches English and I am sure that she uses her red nasty teacher pen to mark up the spelling and grammatical errors in each of my posts. Bitch. Anyway, I am happily waiting in the bar across the street from her apartment. T and I are having dinner once she arrives, so in the meantime, I decided to have a snack. Central time makes me hungry, mostly because it makes me feel ambitious….a whole extra hour added to my day. Woot! Per T’s recommendation, I ordered the chips with bleu cheese. Yummy. She actually told me earlier: “You should get the bleu cheese and chips if you are willing to cheat on your diet!” Girlfriend ( and when I say that I am snapping my fingers and looping my neck around in circle formation), how long have we been friends? Diet schmiet. Diets are for losers. And skinny people. I am neither. So as I sit here eating my chips and licking the sauce from my fingers in the most disgusting way, I’m wondering if I might be the first women ever to finish the entire plate by herself? I do feel like the people around me are whispering to one another, “I think she is going to do it. Look at her go!”

Friends like T are hard to come by. Not only is she one of my closest friends, I have been friends with her longer than another else in my life. We went to high school together, college too. In fact, the first time I had sex, I was wearing a skirt (yes, I was that scared…I didn’t take off my skirt during the act) that I borrowed from her. At that time, T and I were the last of the virgins. I remember going over to her house after doing the deed, giddy with excitement that my teenage body had done a very womanly thing. A thing that had scared me for so long. Even after the first time, I was scared. Scared that I would become addicted to sex, drop out of high school and whore myself about town. Mostly though, I was afraid that I would get preggers and not be able to go to college. This would hurt my parents so terribly, that they would glue my younger sister’s legs together and never let her leave the house. The fear of this caused me to hold off on my budding sexuality. I just wasn’t ready for the consequences. And beside, I found out like most girl do, that the first time isn’t that good. And if you are still thinking about me doing the nasty with her skirt, I did have it dry cleaned before I gave it back to her. That is just the way I roll.

It has been over 10 years since T and I lived in the same city. Thanks to Alexander Grahm Bell, we have never let the distance separate us. So I am super duper excited to be visiting her, in her new home of Chicago, for the first time. In many ways, my adult friendship making has been hindered by the relationships that I have with those close to me. Those people being T, my sister, mother and husband. The last job I had, I traveled about 60% of the time. I didn’t work out of an office, but out of my home. I had no idea how difficult it would be to make friends as an adult. My new job, one that requires very little travel, has changed all of that. I now know that I will be home every night and am able to commit to things that I couldn’t before. Tennis is my favorite of those things. I have met so many people over the last few years from tennis. There are a few that I am getting to be rather close with. But friendship takes time. And I have to tell you that sometimes I get impatient. But I have to remember that the friendships I have with my inner circle (very George Clooney, don’t you think?) took many years to develop. Besides, if you remember, George got his start on The Facts of Life, long after it had jumped the shark. I guess there is still hope for me.

Before: Duche fag with a bad mullet who works for Mrs. Garrett and goes rollerskating on the weekends with Tootie...

After: Award winning friend of Brat Pitt...