so it's your birthday--the road to sizzling sexy at 50.

“The great thing about getting older is that you don't lose all the other ages you've been.” ― Madeleine L'Engle

Today is one of my best friend's birthday.

I sent her a text this morning and tried to call.  Later in the day,

she replied letting me know that she was

"at a car show with her guys and

she was sitting in every convertible that she could

looking sexy hot from the neck up!"

She cracks me up and has always been in my corner for anything I've been going through.

We met as freshmen in college where we lived in the same dorm and for the remainder of our college life,

we were next door neighbors sharing a shower between our dorm rooms.

Back then, we were two naive country girls

who suddenly found ourselves in the city.  While everyone else partied that first night,  Catwoman Jean and I shared a bag of popcorn and a tab along side my best friend from home.

Since then, we have remained close--like sisters of sort---

we've shared good times

and

made each other feel better during bad times.

We stood beside each other at our weddings

and

cheered at the birth of our babies.

I wish everyone in the world

could have a friend like Catwoman---

(she got the name by donning a pair of homemade glasses colored with markers and a cape and I've called her that off and on for the past twenty-five years.)

So on your birthday--the 49th one---as we begin the road to being really sexy sizzling hot for fifty----I wanted you to know how much

your friendship and love and support has meant to me over the years. 

Today I celebrate You!!!! and wish I had a big turtle cake that we could divide down the middle.

Thank you for:

*always loving me--no matter how crazy or stupid or wrong I may have been at any given moment.

*for standing by me through thick and thin, good and bad, better and worse and worser.

*for your laughter--that deep belly laugh that turns into a cackle that is so contagious everyone has to laugh whether they are included or not.

*for that time you called in because you'd had that "bad tuna sandwich"---sometimes a girl has to do what a girl has to do to recover if you remember what I mean.

*for loving me, the Big Daddy and all the off color family.

*for being the kind of friend who will take off work, drive three hours to sit with Big Daddy while I have surgery then drive three hours back so you can work the next day....not once but twice.

*for all our adventures, our eating, our laughter and our thinking out loud with each other.

*for always being the one person who can make me feel better regardless of what is going on, who can make me laugh when I really want to cry and for being a friend who'll help you duck tape

that last fingernail---when it feels like that thing holding us up might break.

*for being a model of honesty, hard work, dedication and diligence.

*for being a woman who does whatever she needs to do to keep standing...

we may be getting older,

we may have a few holes or wrinkles or blemishes in places

 we consider all the wrong places

but we are on our way

to the sizzling hot sexiness of fifty

and

we just keep getting better.

Here's to another year

as we journey toward our

moo moo days in the nursing home.

I love you

and

I wish everyone in the world

could have a friend like

my

Catwoman Jean.

"Big daddy says----knock, knock!"

happy birthday

may your world be full of hope, love and laughter

you deserve it!!!

hope you all have a great day

and

have a piece of cake to celebrate

my friends big day!!!!