Last night, we went over to a friend’s house for dinner.

This friend is on parole – for a non violent offense, if that matters to the judgmental folks out there – and he recently got in an accident on his motorcycle. The road he was driving on had unmarked construction and he drove his bike right into wet cement. It was pretty bad.  He was extremely banged up; face all bruised and cut up, even a cut into his sinus cavity, a broken wrist that required surgery, a torn urethra.  Fucked up, ya know?  He’s in a lot of pain and, on top of that, has a parole officer who is a fucking cock, who put him on house arrest over it.

Ridiculous, right?  A grown man “grounded” for getting in an accident?  (Sober, in case you were wondering. He’s a tee totaler)

Needless to say he’s been lonely and depressed and it doesn’t help that his brother and best friend of 30 + years have pretty much ignored him since it happened.  His brother hasn’t even stopped in to see how he’s doing or if his surgery went okay.  He’s pretty much been stuck in the house with his girlfriend, who is run ragged trying to work, take care of him (he couldn’t even shower alone and isn’t supposed to walk much until this week), get him to all his doctor’s appointments and whatnot and they’ve both been going a little nuts.

So, Taylor and me and another couple (Dave and Paula) went over there with lasagna and wine and carrot cake (Paula did the cooking and it was soooo good. Nom) and spent a few hours eating, laughing, talking and generally just… hanging out with the friends we care about.

It was fun.  I really, really enjoyed myself.  In fact, I said on Skype to a co-worker this morning that it hit me that the whole evening was like something you’d see in a movie.

You know, those movies you see where friends are so close it’s almost unbelievable and you envy the good times they’re having, where laughter and talk tumble out, stories spilling over onto more stories, people talking over each other and giving each other a hard time and there are four conversations going on at once and you can almost feel the love thru the screen.

That’s the kind of night I had.

It really made me sit up and take stock of my life.  In the past 5 years or so our circle of friends has changed a bit.  Some we were very close to we see less often – though still love dearly – and some that we barely knew then are as close as family now.  Regardless, I feel like we are blessed.  Well and truly blessed to have friends like we do, to have so much love and so much closeness, trust and loyalty in our lives.

We have friends who would do anything for us.  Friends who help when we need it and who we help when they need it. Friends who can – and do – call in the middle of the night if they have an emergency or problem.  Friends we can call, who will never turn their backs on us.  Friends who accept us exactly as we are, flaws and all, and still love us.

Friends we love, like family, and feel comfortable enough with to be ourselves.  We don’t compete, we don’t feel afraid to tell the truth – even when it’s not what they want to hear, we have comfort and trust.

Someone on Facebook this morning, when I mentioned being slightly hung over but having had such a good time, said:

Remember that night if you ever think your life is unremarkable.

And that is exactly what I intend to do.  Because our friends – and our relationships with them – are amazing and something most people never find.  This is what I need to remember when I get too stressed and get to feeling like my life is nothing but a knot of tension that never gets untangled.

I have a wonderful family, an amazing son, a man I love with ever fiber of my being who makes me happy and whole and friends who own a piece of my heart.

My life, my relationships, are remarkable.