I sit here soggy between the toes and watch the path of destruction of Hurricane Joaquin -- that sounds dramatic, doesn't it? The path is not destructive really, it is just a big wet soggy path from the over-hyped, never ending rain. I should be doing laundry but sometimes it is just fun to pull the hood of your anorak over your head, tug on your wellies and get out and do some errands.
The perfect such errand for a rainy Friday is lunch with Anne.
Everyone needs an Anne in their life.
Anne is one of those friends that "had me at hello".
We met about 4 years ago and only knew each other by name and voice for the first many months. I was presenting a pitch for the accessible playground I was building and she had been in the audience. After the presentation, she looked up my phone number and immediately called me to tell me how moved and inspired she was. She told me some incredibly flattering thoughts and through her tears, she told me that she didn't even know how to enlist in "the cause", but whatever it took, she was calling to let me know that she wanted to be part of it.
We have been close friends ever since.
It shows how much more powerful a compliment is over a criticism. Compliments hold an underestimated amount of power for good beyond the moment.
When we finally met I knew I loved her. . . . because of her hair. It was red, and curly, and funky. She made a statement from her untrendy coiffe that said, "I don't the current trend says you should be blond and highlighted, I beat to my own drum and I make my own trend." Anne is an original.
With our hectic schedules, our friendship currently thrives on occasional lunches together. And with Anne you will start laughing within the first 3 seconds that the waitress arrives at the table. . . carrying an iced tea with four lemons lined up on the right rim of the glass, because she already knows that is what Anne wants. Anne then proceeds to place her order over the next 5-7 minutes altering, adjusting, specifying and customizing every element of her menu selection in a very "When Harry Met Sally"-esque kind of way. I always start laughing before she finishes her monologue.
Everything has a funny ending with Anne. Our conversations range from intensely serious to extremely uneventful, but the end to every conversation thread ends with laughter.
So today, when it has been raining for 2 days and the forecast is calling for 2 more days of the same, after having a cheery lunch with Anne, I can't help but leave with the feeling that the sun will come out tomorrow.