Friends to FRIENDS.

Julia and I, a friendship evolution from babies to besties.

It's crazy the way it happens. When a friendship changes from one depth to another. 

My mom met Erin Biddle years and years and years ago in Strathmere. They were great friends, and remained so throughout the years despite Erin living in Colorado. Fast forward a bit and Erin has two kids, Kelsea and Ryan, and my mom has me. We have met up during the summers in South Jersey and have exchanged Christmas cards and phone calls. I was 'friends' with Kelsea and Ryan, but it was a friendship based on our familial ties - not a true bond. Well, I am grateful for the evolution. This past trip to Colorado we somehow moved from being family friends to having a wholesome, full, friends-forever-type-love. Feeling so very grateful for my short, but refreshing, jaunt to Colorado, and for the time spent with dear friends.

"What We Need is Here"

Geese appear high over us, 

pass, and the sky closes. Abandon, 

as in love or sleep, holds

them to their way, clear

in the ancient faith: what we need is here. 

And we pray, not for new Earth or heaven, 

But to be quiet in heart, and in eye, 

clear. What we need is here.

*Julia sent me this poem yesterday, and as she said, I feel like our 'here' is us together. 

Bunnies & My Best Friend

This is my best friend, Gina Enberg.

I think about Gina all the time, but Easter always reminds me of her the most because she LOVES bunnies.  When I met Gina in college, all she talked about was her black and white bunny named Mickey, who had passed away. She painted pictures of him, drew pictures of him and told stories. He was like a dog...would cuddle her in the bed, go outside to the bathroom, and he had one ear that flopped over. So over the years, I have bought everything "bunny" for gina: from vintage cards, to bunny-shaped wicker baskets, bunny jewelry, t-shirts with bunnies on them....just everything and anything you could imagine. It's not hard to shop for G, but if all else fails and I'm stumped, I just have to go on Etsy.com and find some cool Mickey-esque bunny goods.

I met Gina in Professor Luttropp's Graphic Design I class my junior year of college. Considering that 99.9% of Montclair States students are complete jack-asses, I was very fortunate to of found such a spectacular person. A diamond in the rough! We would go out on Wednesday nights to Chevy's for margarita's, we would have lunch together in the afternoons (usually Gina's famous tunafish sandwiches) with iced tea, she would drag my ass to the on-campus gym where we would chat away and do crunches, run (and walk) around the track on campus, and just hang out to listen to music and create art. Gina made my college experience what it was, and I'm so thankful for that! We would trek into NYC and eat good food, and buy PAPER. Gina loves paper. She has worked at the Montclair Paperie for years now. She is a professional slicer, gluer, designer, creator extrodinaire! She has designed invitations and cards for the rich and famous (literally...Montclair is a happenin' town), and she always takes time to create cards for her friends and family. For years now I have received atleast 2 cards a month from Gina...90% of them being homemade, down to the envelopes! I have been saving them all, and when Gina is a famous illustrator I'll joke about selling her cards for millions!! Really though, I've never met someone so thoughtful in my whole life. She is a slave for the paperie, and on her day off she goes to church and then cooks lunch for her grandmother. Whenever she has a free second she goes down to her basement art space and starts creating. 

Aside from her (serious) obsession with bunnies, she also has a passion for Led Zepplin, paper, cupcakes, and brushing her teeth...a lot. She's beautiful, sincere, and humble - a rare person. SO, I decided that I would share my best friend with all of you. If you ever need any invitations, illustrations, or really anything that deals with art - Gina is your gal. And pay her twice what she's asking...because she always charges too little!  

Here are two things that Gina has designed for me. One is a poster for a show. Me, as a mermaid, wrapped around a tree - which is a guitar. The other is one that she designed for me...which I have yet to use...as a mermaid. 

I hope that everyone gets one special quirky, lovable, passionate, bunny-obsessed friend like I have. Because really, having somebody like Gina just makes life a better experience!

"I'd like to be the sort of friend that you have been to me.

I'd like to be the help that you've been always glad to be;

I'd like to mean as much to you each minute of the day

as you have always meant, old friend of mine, to me along the way"

FOR GINA ENBERG's ARTISTIC SERVICES, please inquire here:

ginaenberg@mac.com

Word Wednesday

Today's word is Friendship, because it has been coming up rather often lately. I have been blessed with some amazing, truly wonderful people as my friends. For the past three weeks I have been staying with friends on the West Coast, and they have cared for me like family. Even now, as I'm typing this letter, I'm staying at my friends Jeff & Sharon's house. Knowing that I've been a bit down, they have opened their home to me - feeding me, laughing with me, and being my friends.

Here are some words about friendship:

Friendship is a term used to denote co-operative and supportive behavior between two or more beings. In this sense, the term connotes a relationship which involves mutual knowledge, esteem, and affection and respect along with a degree of rendering service to friends in times of need or crisis. Friends will welcome each other's company and exhibit loyalty towards each other, often to the point of altruism. Their tastes will usually be similar and may converge, and they will share enjoyable activities. They will also engage in mutually helping behavior, such as exchange of advice and the sharing of hardship. A friend is someone who may often demonstrate reciprocating and reflective behaviors. Yet for many, friendship is nothing more than the trustthat someone or something will not harm them.

Value that is found in friendships is often the result of a friend demonstrating the following on a consistent basis:

• the tendency to desire what is best for the other,
• sympathy and empathy,
• honesty, perhaps in situations where it may be difficult for others to speak the truth, especially in terms of pointing out the perceived faults of one's counterpart
• mutual understanding.

:Here Are Some Of My Fabulous Friends:

Christian and Sven, my bandmates and great friends

My roomates and support group, Raksha, Kara and Kim

My friends-since-birth, be-there-whenever-you-need her kickass friend, Julisa

Jeff & Sharon, my fabulous, funny, fun, surf buddies, food buddies, and true believers.

JamieD: Sweetest, Supportive, Surfin Mama

GINA!!! I don't think that there are words to describe her. Wonderful. Phenomenal. Beautiful.

Paulie - the brother that I never had. Family.

Corkill, ah corkill. My creative, colorful sister. 

There are many more friends that I don't have up here, but I love them all!! Probably my best friend of all is my Dad. When you have friends you aren't alone. 

Here are some friend quotes.

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born."
- Anais Nin

"What is a friend? I will tell you...it is someone with whom you dare to be yourself." ~ Frank Crane "To know someone here or there  with whom you can feel there is understanding in spite of distances or thoughts expressed That can make life a garden." "There comes that mysterious meeting in life when someone acknowledges who we are and what we can be, igniting the circuits of our highest potential." ~ Rusty Berkus TYPES OF FRIENDSHIP: ''''Best friend (or close friend): a person(s) with whom someone shares extremely strong interpersonal ties with as a friend.' Acquaintance: similar to a friend, but sharing of emotional ties aren't present. An example would be a coworker with whom you enjoy eating lunch, but would not look to for emotional support. Romantic friendship: the very close but non-sexual friendship shared between two friends, often involving physical contact such as hugging, holding hands, and even cuddling. Soulmate: the name given to someone who is considered the ultimate, true, and eternal half of the other's soul, in which the two are and forever were meant to be together. Pen pal: a person who shares a "postal" relationship with another and regularly writes via "snail mail". They may or may not have met each other in person and may share either love, friendship, or simply an acquaintence between each other. Internet friendship: a widely debated and criticized form of friendship or romance which takes place over the Internet. It is similar to a pen pal, in a sense a "technologically modern" form of pen pals, and the people may or may not have met in person. It's often considered dangerous. Comrade: means "ally", "friend", or "colleague" in a military or (usually) left-wing political connotation. This is the feeling of affinity that draws people together in time of war or when people have a mutual enemy or even a common goal. Friendship can be mistaken for comradeship. Former New York Times war correspondent Chris Hedges wrote: "We feel in wartime comradeship. We confuse this with friendship, with love. There are those, who will insist that the comradeship of war is love — the exotic glow that makes us in war feel as one people, one entity, is real, but this is part of war's intoxication. [...] Friends are predetermined; friendship takes place between men and women who possess an intellectual and emotional affinity for each other. But comradeship – that ecstatic bliss that comes with belonging to the crowd in wartime – is within our reach. We can all have comrades."[2] As a war ends, or a common enemy recedes, many comrades return to being strangers, who lack friendship and have little in common. Casual relationship or "Friends with benefits": the sexual or near-sexual and emotional relationship between two people who don't expect or demand to share a formal romantic relationship. In the U.S., this is considered "a fling". Boston marriage: a term used in the ninteenth and twentieth centuries to denote two women that lived together in the same household independent of male support. Relationships were not necessarily sexual. It was used to quell fears of lesbians after World War I. Blood brother or blood sister: may refer to people related by birth, or a circle of friends who swear loyalty by mingling the blood of each member together. Open relationship: a relationship, usually between two people, that agree each partner is free to have sexual intercourse with others outside the relationship. When this agreement is made between a married couple, it's called an open marriage. Roommate: a person who shares a room or apartment (flat) with another person and do not share a familial or romantic relationship. Imaginary friend: a non-physical friend created by a child. It may be seen as bad behavior or even taboo (some religious parents even consider their child to be possessed by an evil spirit), but is most commonly regarded as harmless, typical childhood behavior. The friend may or may not be human, and commonly serves a protective purpose. So everyone, call your friend(s) today and tell them how much they mean to you.