BIG overtures, or small gestures, friends do so much to lift our spirits and keep us feelin' warm and fuzzy -- sometimes when we least expect it (but always when we most need it). A good friend of mine recently, quite out of the blue, wrote me a lengthy email, which included an astonishingly complimentary, overwhelmingly touching list of 19 things that my I HEART TO BLOG blog has made him think/feel/remind him of (and I quote):

1. I friggin' miss you.
2. I am so happy you are my friend (belive me its a SHORT list).
3. I love that you are so creative.
4. You are soooo funny.
5. I love that you can go to a club concert in 4-inch heels and be worried
about your clutch.
6. I love/cried that you didn't have enough $$$ for Elvis to marry you.
7. I love that you see yourself as a "cool kid."
8. You constantly look for beauty in all things.
9. I totally would have laughed at you in high school and would've contemplated
your future during math class, guessing it would be:
A) blow up the school (a-la Carrie) OR
B) commit suicide because joy division was on repeat in your bedroom.
10. You really, really, really love your mac.
11. You have a friend who is a banker. Say it together: a banker.
12. You married your "Canadian" boyfriend so that you could stay in the U.S.
(I'm pretty sure it should have been the other way around).
13. You love your said "Canadian" boyfriend/husband and you both are
eachother's foundations.
14. I love that you have a dog, I love your dog, I love your dog's name.
15. I love that your life has purpose and meaning (even though you don't know it).
16. I love that you remind me that I too am a secret nerd who grew up on
the internet and have constantly lived in conflict over the MAC vs.PC battle.
17. You remind me that I have a YAMICA camera that is all manual
and shiny and new that I bought for photography class in college -- AND that
we decided we are not buying any art for the house; that I am instead shooting it
designing and framing it. (I found my photography class book and realized
that I know so much but stopped using said knowledge... BUT now will
continue to use in order to expose my son to creativity... AND that I took
great pictures and was embarassed when the teacher would showcase my work,
so I stopped).
18. I love that you constantly remind me that you live life and not let life live you.
(does that make sense? I just thought it up).
19. And above all, I love that you make me want to be all that I can be.
And not in a military-fascist sort of way, but in a
banker-who-worked-in-the-music-industry-who-is-afraid-of-germs
and not-to-be-afraid-of-letting-loose-all-that-creative/electronic
-mojo-pent-up-inside-in-my-new-mac-laptop way.