Rivers of Thankfulness: I love Carmella. & "Wonderful Mail."

Project 365 * 4
Day 391

I've been thinking a lot lately about my friend, Carmella. Every night actually. But, it's always too late to call. So, I say to myself, "I'm going to call her tomorrow...it's been way too long since we've talked." And then tomorrow comes and goes. And the next day. And the day after that. It's not that I don't want to call. I do. It's just that my days are dictated by two little people who like to keep me very busy. I hate the time and distance between us. But even so, whenever we do talk, nothing has changed. We love each other, and that's really all that matters.

The thing I love about Carmella is that she isn't afraid to be herself. She isn't afraid to be silly. And goofy. She isn't afraid of what anyone thinks about her. She loves to have fun. She loves to laugh.

We used to walk down the halls of our high school doing silly walks and dances. It didn't matter who saw us. One morning before school, I found my dad's deer call and thought it would be super funny to bring it to school. Carmella and I found a table in the middle of the cafeteria during lunch. We sat down alone. Just the two of us. I bent down low to the ground, and blew the deer call as hard as I could. The ENTIRE cafeteria went dead silent. Except for us. We were laughing hysterically. And just remembering it is making me laugh hysterically. Addy keeps asking me, "what's funny, mama?"

She doesn't stay mad long.

I stole Carmella's car once in high school. We shared a locker. And she kept her car keys on the top shelf. She was busy doing something during lunch, and not wanting to look for someone else to eat with, I decided to steal her car and go to McDonald's. I thought I was pretty smooth until she came up to me at the end of the day, and asked why her car was parked in a different spot. I didn't think she'd notice. She was mostly mad at me not because I had stolen her car without asking, but because I didn't have a licence or a learner's permit.

She'll stand by your side.

We both had been invited, for some reason I forget, to attend a pizza party during our lunch block. We wanted to eat the pizza, but we didn't want to eat it in the room assigned for the pizza party. We grabbed our pizza, and tried to leave. But this teacher, I believe his name was Mr. Lenowitz, stopped us. He told us we had to eat the pizza in the pizza party room. We sat down and stared at our pizza. I have no idea why we didn't want to eat it in that room. But we didn't. Teenagers, right? Carmella noticed he had turned his back to us. She grabbed her plate of pizza, and told me to run. So we made a run for it. Then we heard him. Mr. Lenowitz. "HEY! GET BACK HERE!" He was chasing us down the hallway. So we walked faster. He started running. We started running. We ran to the bathroom and for some strange reason flushed our pizza down the toilet. I guess we were trying to hide the evidence. We walked out together, and we got yelled at together. And, if I remember correctly, got in trouble together. For skipping out on a pizza party and flushing pizza down the toilet of all things.

She's cried with me.

When River died, she called me and cried with me on the phone. Sometimes, you just need someone to be sad with you. To not give any advice. To not try to help. But to be sad. And cry with you. I don't remember many details about the days following River's death. But I do remember my conversation with Carmella. Because she called me and cried with me. And that's what I needed.

I love Carmella. I'm thankful to have found such an amazing person to love and call my friend. She's a beautiful person. And I love her dearly. Thankful for her. Thankful for her friendship.

For my kind thing this week, I needed some help. So, I turned to the internet. There are dozens of websites on kindness. I found one with suggestions on ways to show kindness. One in particular caught my eye. It was called, "wonderful mail." The directions were simple. It said to write a note to a stranger and send it in the mail. It said to grab a phone book, and start sending out notes to say hello, or to encourage people, or to bring a little brightness to their day. Of course, I just used google. I would type in random numbers, and see which address would pop up first. I mailed little notes of happiness and encouragement to 16 random strangers. It was so fun to see the house my note would be going to on google street view. With each note, I said a little prayer for the person who would be receiving it. Since I love getting fun mail, I thought this would be a great way to show kindness this week. I hope that 16 strangers have a little bit of a brighter day because of my notes.

Thankful for a very fun week at home with my babies. Snow days are the best. Thankful for a lazy Sunday. Thankful for websites that do nothing but give suggestions on ways to show kindness. That makes me happy. Websites devoted to good things only. Thankful for my sweet friend, Carmella. Thankful for all the love she has shown me over the years. Thankful that no matter how much time passes, she still loves me. She still considers me a best friend. Thankful to have been blessed with a woman like her in my life.