The People in Our Lives - Girl Friends

In writing about the people in my life, I had no particular order in how I wanted to put them.
Tonight I was looking through my photos and thought a lot about this one. My mother is on the right, with two of her friends on a trip to the seaside. In the collection of photos, there are pictures of them at the beach in their bathing suits, pictures of them laughing and ones of them serious and ones of them looking glamorous. My husband has a theory that ladies need lady friends more than men need buddies. I think that's true too. No science behind this theory, just observation of life.
My husband sees me as his very best friend, and I see him the same way, but..... I still want to have my girl friends around me. Its just more fun to shop for fabric with a girl friend than my husband. He just stands in the middle of the isle with his arms crossed. He always looks miserable but tries to pretend to be content to watch me touch each fabric that catches my eye. I think I act about the same when we look at tires for the car.
Now in life there are very best friends, the ones you have had for all your life, the ones you never have to explain anything to. They know all your family, they know your faults and still love you. Sunny, who comments on my blog is that kind of friend. She has known me forever. She knows my family and I know hers. We walked the halls of school together and share camping stories and became moms for the first time around the same time. I have one other friend like that, Debbie. She lives in Massachusetts but we seldom miss a day chatting on the phone, and there is a special bond there.
Then there are casual friends, ones you can call twice a year, you laugh, "do lunch" and be content with that level of friendship. There are also new friends that you meet and instantly like and feel like you have known them forever. Kindred spirits ! Sometimes you meet people and they seem o.k. at first but then become clingers and demanding, those are the kind I RUN from.
A couple times I have met some ladies that seem so super nice, then come to find out they are plain old nuts ! We have one of those in town here and sometimes I feel like hiding when I see her walking towards my house.
Women seem to need other women to talk to, to do things like go to Starbucks with, to talk about small stuff and the craft stuff that husband are not really into. Fortunately for me, my sister Jan is also my best friend.
I remember my mother having her friend Adelle over a lot and us going over there. They went shopping once a week together, come fire or floods. They also had a little group called " Creative Ideas". Ladies from the church that met once a month, taking turns at each others house. They shared what project they were working on, a new knitting pattern, or how to make marbled paper, lots of fun things and when I got older I went to the meetings too. They fixed light refreshments, gosh that sounded like Hyacinth Bucket didn't it ?
There was also my mothers friend Mary, I loved her. She gave me coffee when I was 4. She used an demitasse cup and it was more milk with a tiny bit of coffee in it, but she made me feel so grown up. Over the years the coffee and my cup grew in proportion to my age. People went to each others house for coffee in those days. I think its nice. I have people come for tea and its kind of the same feeling. I have a friend Nancy who loved taking tea as much as I do and we have the most delightful chats.
Desiree and I knit socks together and talk about a million things but don't see each other all that often and thats ok. with both of us. We don't feel guilty about not calling each other if a month slips by. Girl friends are just great fun.I think for lots of us, the internet gives us cyber friendship because its not easy to get together with friends these days. Work, children doing a million different activities, fear of intruding, etc keeps us from just stopping by for coffee. If you lived near me, you could just stop by and have a visit. No need to call first !
Call an old friend or invite a friend over for tea or coffee. You may just discover you have been missing something special.

Speaking of friends, please stop over at La Tea Dah's blog http://gracioushospitality.blogspot.com/ and see her pictures of the cutest baby squirrels