Do you know Jessica? I just love her so much!!
Back in the year 1999, I was working as a technical writer for a British company in the middle of America and Jessica was hired as the office manager and I realized in short form that she was amazing.
I sat at my desk in a cube farm and she sat up front at the reception desk. She was the Pam to my Jim. I'd wander over to reception and we'd crack wise and ponder her love life and meander through conversations about life, the universe and everything (Jessica will get your Douglas Adams references). She made the long days a lot shorter by dint of being funny and sweet and smart and giving me someone to talk to when the days felt too long, as office days often do.
Once she walked through the halls of the office and belched right out loud and made me snort laugh from my desk. All those Brits looked at us like we were so weird. We didn't mind.
Sigh. She left me and headed off on adventures - she acted in shows (a thing at which she excels) and fell in love, got married, had a couple of super cute babies, started working in a glammy ad agency, got promoted, and bought a fab house.
So much life has happened to both of us since 1999! The jobs and the romances (well, for her - it's just been me and Don the whole time) and the moves and them babies. All the doubts and fears and successes and stories. All the times one of us has said to the other, "Dude, I have got to tell you something!" Or "OMG, have you read this?" Or "Sigh, I feel..."
I'm so glad to have Jessica as my friend.
And now we Skype all day every day and now she makes long, overwhelming days seem short and manageable by making me laugh and listening to me bitch and cluing me into things like Ole Miss Dorm rooms on Pinterest. If you click that link, there's a real danger that the preciousness and privilege might blind you. If you feel compelled, I recommend you have a friend on hand to have a similar Skype chat with:
I hope you have a friend like that. It's pretty awesome.
Jessica, to reiterate: you are warm and funny and smart and sweet and so so beautiful. You're a great friend, a great mother, an all around great motherfucking person. I am goddamn lucky I get to be your friend. You are KILLING at this being alive thing.
Welcome to #hotforty, the coolest damn club in town. I hope your whole day feels just like this:
