Happy Birthday Amy

It seems like Amy's been my friend for a lifetime, but really we only have known each other maybe 15 years or so, and even then, probably one of those people you know of but don't really know.

We met through a mutual friend Amy although we introduced ourselves to each other. Let me explain. Amy, Amy and I were all members of the Winona State Forensics team however as I was also working at the radio station at the time and juggling a number of things and although I really enjoyed IE Speech team / Forensics in high school - college was a whole different animal and one that I really really struggled. So Amy would tell the other Amy all about me and vice-versa, although we never actually competed together at any of the same meets. Birthday girl Amy likes to tell the story that for a long time she just thought I was some figment of the other Amy's imagination.

Well, sophmore year Birthday Girl Amy and I shared an English class. After probably the first or second class Amy came up to me and asked if I knew the other Amy and was I a member of the forensics squad. I said yes, and the mystery was solved.

For a whole lot of circumstances we really didn't run into each other in Winona. And a few years after graduation, after moving back to Illinois for some reason maybe Amy remembers, but I don't, I visited Minneapolis and we got together for lunch. I think that was the start of an e-mail campaign that I think helped gel an understand of each other. People often chide me and wonder how you can say you are good friends with someone you only ever write to and I guess it just depends on how willing you are to be transparent to the other person.

We played a game of 20 Questions. Which actually ended up being more like 200 Questions. She listened and stood by through heartbreak and difficult times. She made me laugh.

In the last several years I've witnessed this woman's strength through losing a child, growing a business, finding a way to nurture her son through autism, loving her family, sometimes not loving her family.

We've survived the hottest 4th of July parade in the history of mankind. We've scrapbooked a whole lot of memories.

Lives get busy, but she's the person I write or call when life is tough. When I'm stressing about something I shouldn't. When I need an Adobe Illustrator question answered.

She's one of those quiet people on the sidelines I know who will cheer me on.

I only have a few friends like her but I treasure them. So often we worry about not doing enough or staying connected enough but there's something to be said about a commitment to friendship that goes beyond some sort of checklist of MUST DO TODAY to just being a friend.

I admit most of the time I do feel guilty because we don't connect very often. Heck the last time I was at their house, down the road a whole subdivision popped up. I'd like to change that. We may resort to relating via facebook or short notes but she's still there...a hop skip and a jump over the state line and I am glad to say...

Amy is my friend and today is her birthday.