What she said

Just a quickie so you all know I'm still alive (and buried in work, travel & Noah)...

I love my best friend, Deanna, dearly. She has one of the kindest souls of anyone I know, and she's helped me through some challenging times in the 12 years I've known her.

She also has a way with words.

For instance, when we lived in a shabby apartment together just South of Rte. 161 in Columbus, she came home one day and fired this off at me: "Did you see the new K-Mart up the road? It's the most beautiful K-Mart I've ever seen!"

No really, she said that. I think I paused and then burst out in laughter.

She also has a way of making me sigh in envy.

My freshman year of college when she and I roomed together in DK Hall at Otterbein, we were lounging around with our girlfriend Eileen. Leen and I were in the middle of a self-esteem crushing conversation—lamenting endlessly about our bodies, our wacko families, and finally what things we most detested about our faces (you know, the kind of diatribe every 12 to 22-year-old girl has). I can't remember which one of us—Leen or me—declared we needed a nose job and a new extended family, but Deanna responded with, "But I LIKE my nose, and I really love my family."

Ah, you gotta love her (and I do!).

But there's more. Deanna gifted me with her latest "comment installment" just the other day.

Before I share that, a little background: Deanna teaches dance for a living, so she's got a built-in exercise routine. As a result, she's tinier than when were in college (when we were roughly the same size before I packed on the freshman 15, the sophomore 5, the junior 5 and the senior 5...yep I ate a lot of pizza and I drank a lot of beer).

A few days ago I was chatting away on the phone with De about her dress fitting for her brother's wedding this Friday—which also marks less than three weeks since she gave birth to her THIRD child. I asked how the fitting went, and she delightfully told me that the seamstress had to take IN the dress. Hooray for De! No sighing on my part yet...

...but then she adds, "Yeah, I even fit back into my pre-pregnancy jeans today. As a matter of fact, I boxed up all of my maternity clothes and gave them away."

Huh?

—Insert BIG sigh here—

My comment to her: "Deanna, I just put away my favorite pair of maternity jeans a few months ago—approximately 11 months after giving birth to my first child."

Lucky, lucky girl.

I do love her, that crazy-talking, self-esteem brimming chica who just has a way with words...