Thank You!

I just want to take some time to say a huge THANK YOU to all my friends near and far who have been so supportive of me during the past several weeks. Thanks for being sounding boards, support beams, and ears for listening to my venting and whining and complaining.

I hope I can be there for all of you when you need it the most. It's the least I can do. And, while it's so cheesy, that's what friends are for.

I am truly blessed with so many wonderful people in my life, and when life is down it's easy to forget the good things and focus on the bad things.

Friends. Neighbors. Bro-Mance.

My husband has a boyfriend, and I am thrilled!

OK, so you are wondering what the heck am I talking about, or what kind of marriage arrangement do we really have? Let me back up and explain.

I have known my husband for about 5 years now. It is fair to say he doesn't have many close male friends. His best friend is a female (named Bambi, no less! And no, she's not a blonde stripper, and no they never dated or got physically intimate. She was married, went through a divorce, and remarried, she's a country girl and Michael has assured me many times he's never been attracted to her. I am totally cool with it now, but as all insecure girlfriends do, I had a period of time when I wasn't so cool, no matter what Michael said or did. With time I realized he was being truthful and got over it). Anyway, besides Bambi (which, again, I would kill my mom if she named me that!!!), when we worked together there were several women who were his friends, and apparently he had several female friends in college (but only two real girlfriends). He has a core group of guys he hung out with in elementary and high school, but it seems as he's gotten older he talks to them and sees them less. Currently, as far as guys, he mainly only hangs out with his brothers and a few of his first cousins. But even that is a little sporadic. Since relocating from Bloomington-Normal to Tinley Park I think we both have been disappointed with how inconsistently we hang out with his siblings and cousins.

Side note: All of my closest friends have always been girls. Though I do agree in some ways that it might be easier to get along with males because there is less cattiness and back stabbing and all of that drama. But I could never get over the initial question of "are we just friends? does he like me that way?" The whole "When Harry Met Sally" dilemma.

I digress. Back to my original point.

Enter Scott. Scott lives two houses over from us. We met him last summer after we moved in. Most of this past winter we didn't see any of our neighbors much. It was like we were all hibernating. But, as spring sprung, people were out more, and he and my husband were neighborly talking from yard to yard, which evolved to going over to each other's places to help fix things, then going/coming over to watch sporting events. His wife works late shifts at two hospitals so often he was alone in the evening and I would guess lonely. Sometimes I have tagged along, other times I wouldn't go and joke they were having a "man date", to which they thought was hilarious. We had recently seen the movie "I Love You, Man", about a man finding a good guy friend, having some "bro-mance", so the description seemed fitting.

I am just happy my husband is making a new friend. And not just a friendly acquaintance, a true buddy with whom he has a close bond. They have several things in common and it just feels good to see my husband happy and having an alternative to hanging out with boring old me all the time. Actually, one night me and Michael hung out with Scott and his wife and we all had a really good time, very relaxed and casual. They are really genuinely nice people who I could see us becoming very good friends with in the years to come.

Now, if only all of my closest girlfriends didn't live out of state!

It's been a week...

Eeek! It's been a week! I guess I have been busy! So I have a back log of things on my mind to blog about on here.

This past weekend was fun. Some good friends from Indy came to visit, an old friend from high school/home and her husband (who through the years I consider as friend too). As far as couples go, they seem to be the couple who best "clicks" with me and my husband. The four of us are all very different personality-wise, like my husband and I are pretty opposite in many ways, my friend and her husband are very opposite (she is outgoing and talks alot, he is pretty quiet, rarely speaks his mind, at least until you get to know him more) but somehow they make it work. Somehow, our personalities compliment each other well. Together, we mostly enjoy just hanging out, talking about life, going out to dinner, and, above all, playing board games. Not just regular board games like Trivial Pursuit and Monopoly, but the Euro-style gamer games (trust me, if you aren't into them, you won't know any of the titles. But if you are interested, go to http://www.boardgamegeek.com/). My husband is into these kind of games and introduced them to me. Mostly they are strategy-type games, which I have never thought I would enjoy or be good at playing, but for some of the games I am actually pretty good! Anyway, I am getting off-topic. So we introduced these kind of games to this couple and they are really into them, so now whenever we hang out we tend to play. So, in a nutshell, it was a fun time and great to see them!

Also, the weather has finally taken a turn for the better, which has really lifted my mood. It's been consistently sunny, warmer and spring-like for several days in a row. And though initially the time change messes with my internal clock, now I am liking it because it is lighter later. I love when the sun stays out longer! So even though there are a few cases at work stressing me out now, and the news daily recounts how the economy is getting worse, and the world seems so dark and uncertain, I have this overall feeling of being hopeful and happy that I usually feel in early spring.

Well this post seems to be very rambly and random, so I think I will close here.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!