Happy Birthday Suzie!!

Today is Suzie's 38th birthday!! She is younger than me so it is OK for me to say what her age is. She is one of my oldest and dearest friends. We met when I was in college working at a mexican restaurant. I think the year was 1988, making our friendship 20 years old!! I was a waitress and she was the hostess. We actually did not like each other very much at first. It was probably my fault as I thought she gave her friend Beth better tables than me. I then decided I was transferring to UCI, which is where she went to college. In the process of pumping her for information, I discovered what an awesome person she is! She has been my closest friend since.

This is a picture of us when we were roommates living in San Francisco. I can't remember the year, 1993 or 1994?

Here are a few things about Suzie and what I have learned from her:

1. She is my "crafty" friend. She taught me how to cross stitch back in college. The cross stitch below she made for me. It is framed and hangs over my baby's crib. I think of her whenever I see it. She also sews, quilts, and knits. When she came to visit me in medical school I remember her sewing one of my pillows that had ripped.

2. She is an awesome cook. Whenever I have food/cooking related questions I call her (or my mom). If I don't have a certain spice, she can tell me what to use instead. How do I color fondant? She found me the info. I recently tried this recipe for mushroom pasta that I got from her and it is great!

3. She introduced me to coffee. We were in college together and I had never tried it. We were at a coffee kiosk on campus and I had 2 cups the first time. I was bouncing off the walls! And I was hooked.

4. She is a great and loyal friend. No matter where she moves she will have a group of great friends in no time at all. She is currently in Indiana, but this doesn't prevent us from talking or texting almost daily.

5. She is a dedicated and devout Catholic. Even when we were roommates in San Francisco she would go to mass every Sunday. That blew me away. Church was somewhere you went when you were a kid and your parents made you. Here she was in her 20's, no parent in sight, and she was attending mass. She is the Godmother to my oldest son, Zachary. She never told me that we should be going to mass, but was a constant and quiet example of a life lived in the Faith. I don't think she knows this, but she is one of the reasons we joined a parish and began attending mass regularly last year, which led to my decision to convert to Catholicism.

6. She introduced me to blogging! She started her blog last year. Prior to that I had never really read blogs before, but it still didn't occur to me to actually start one. Last November when I was telling her that my boys had decorated their gingerwood house for the holidays, she said "Why don't you start a blog? Then you can post the pictures of stuff like that!" Alas, my blog was born! I start out almost every day with flipping on the coffee maker, then sitting at the computer and checking her blog for updates while the coffee brews.

I hope you have a day as incredible as you are Suzie!! Happy Birthday!!