Fat Tuesday with Mary

     I was teasing myself for picking the month of March to eat better....c'mon with a name like "Fat Tuesday" that was a hard one to honor.  Actually, we did ok.  I met Mary back in 1993.   We have been many things to one another through those years.  I was the girlfriend of her first born.  I was the wife of her first born.  I made her a grandmother.  She fed me ice chips and wiped my sweaty brow through labors.  She was my financial advisor, my coach, my stylist, a soul mate  and my drinking buddy.  We've danced, toured museums, cried and laughed together for years.  Many of them.  Through all of it she was one of the few people I truly couldn't get enough of.  I have begged her for years to retire in my neck of the woods.  Whether we are sitting there drinking coffee or watching a Broadway musical we are having a blast TOGETHER.  She is witty and funny and zany.  She makes the difficult manageable and the easy an adventure.  She has compassion and grace and patience beyond belief.  She has been a second mother and the best grandmother ever.  We are more alike than we realize and different enough to bring color to each others worlds.  She has been SO many things to me but a best friend is the most accurate title and I am truly blessed to have her in my life!!!