Friday Night Lights

Today was a shit day. Fuck, this week was a shit week.

Friday brought the culmination of suckitude. The pea learned today that her sister has skin cancer and is having surgery next week. By way of background, the pea and I met through the internets, but every day, I think we will find our mutual Kevin Bacon, where we will discover that we either we had already met or would have inevitably met through mutual friends. In any event, for all of our differences and similarities, we have been friends for nearly five years. I have gotten to know and love her family, as she has mine. Her sister, Dayna, is nearly her twin. The first time I met Dayna, I couldn't quite get over the similarities between she and the pea. They look, sound and love alike. I loved Dayna the moment I met her, and she is my extended family, just as much as Keegan and Kyle are pea's little brothers.

Dayna, by the way, is amazing. She has had an auto-immune disease for most of her life, which has now rendered her hairless. No hair, no eyebrows, no eyelashes. Crazy thing is, she is still almost breathtakingly beautiful and striking, and she has the same look and voice of the pea. God, their folks raised them well. I am conveniently ignoring one of her sisters in that assessment, but even that one is deep down, a really wonderful woman. Dayna became a milliner (hat maker) pretty early on and she is startlingly talented in her craft. Dayna has toiled in her industry for years and is just now hitting her stride. She is so overdue to hit the bullseye and it just killed me to hear she has yet another medical milestone to surmount.

This, of course, is nothing compared to what she and the pea are feeling. I am just a proud member of her peanut gallery. It made me think about what I would be feeling if one of my siblings were faced with cancer or some other life-changing diagnosis. I honestly cannot imagine it. For all of our sins against each other, my siblings love one another deeply and we all know that we can rely upon one another for anything, no matter how pissed off or slighted we might have felt in the past. Tonight, for whatever reason, that makes me feel so blessed and fortunate.

The pea and I went to dinner tonight and had a fucking amazing meal. Fried green tomatoes with mozzarella and homemade tomato jelly as an app, then a perfectly roasted chicken with fall vegetable puree. It was goddamn heaven on earth, and, with a perfect Manhattan, reminded me of the healing powers of a good meal. Friends are the family you choose, and I chose pea and her family many years ago. I am so very fortunate to know and love her, and equally lucky to love her family as my own.