Gratitude Day 1 - Amanda (Duh.)

Well, it has been a MINUTE since I last blogged.  Ok, well, it has been almost two years.  Time to get back at it.

The month of November is a month of thankfulness, and thanks to the people behind Kid President, we all know that showing gratitude can increase happiness.  So, each day in November, I will blog about gratitude.  I will find something or someone, old or new, to be thankful for.  And you'll read about it here.  Who knows...it just might be you!

November 1st: I'm thankful for Amanda Hollander.  Amanda is my best friend in the world.  It sort of happened by accident.  We went on a boat together for a long time and ended up on the same watch.  We spent hours in the darkness sipping on cocoa and watching for (and sometimes not seeing) giant cruise ships.  We wrote letters for years to one another, and maintained a casual pen-pal existence.  And then one day we met up in New York (over 5 years since the last time we had seen one another), and slowly our minds and our hearts and our decision making ability became one.

Amanda does big things.  She arrived in DC from Maine in a flash when I was in the hospital in 2010.  She stayed with me for a few days, managed family communication, and made inappropriate jokes a little too soon.  Amanda does little things.  When I complain about the ticking of my biological clock, she says things like, "Going out on dates with a bunch of wrong people isn't doing your uterus any good either."  And when I don't call her for a few weeks because I'm trying to be tough and deal with things on my own and pretend I'm not sad, she knows it, and she calls and calls and calls until we talk, and loves me even though she can't understand what I'm saying because I am laugh-crying too hard.

I don't know what took us so long to figure out we were meant to be best friends.  I'm just so grateful we did.

And of course, I can't be thankful for Amanda without expressing my gratitude for Toby and Lucky, her incredible, hilarious, hippie, wood burning stove, 30-year-old-guitar-playing, composting, lobster-roll-eating, gay-loving, activist parents.  And Katy, her gorgeous, brilliant, funny, crafty wife.  Thank you guys for giving me and sharing with me my best friend.