my friend at work.

You know what's the best thing ever? It's not really a secret... it's when you realize you have a friend at work. OK, maybe using the words best and ever is a little extreme, but for someone who loves making herself a new friend, it's not the worst thing in the world. I'll refer to my friend as Dee, for the sake of confidence. Dee is in her mid-forties, a mother of one and a wife of a military man. BUT one of her finest qualities is that she's from the Jersey Shore. Yez yez yezzzz. I have my own personal Snooky less than 10 feet away. And if that doesn't make someone feel special, I don't really know what could.

A couple months ago Dee came back from her lunch break all sorts of jazzed because she had just bought new curtains. "This is what you have to look forward to in your life... you get excited about curtains and throw pillows. It's really awesome, I know" she said to me. Thank God I have at least 20 years of fun before I reach that point. Consider this my pledge to never let my life get anywhere near letting curtains and pillows being something that jazzes me up. And for anyone who knows me, you know this isn't going to be hard to stick to.

Dee and I share a similar sense of humor. Case in point: Our senior officer emailed our staff a riddle. I for one am not too terribly fond of riddles, mostly because I'm horrible at them. Someone can say "What's brown and nutty and has a sweet friend? He likes to smoosh, but be careful because he'll stick to you if you hold on for too long." And nine times out of ten I won't guess peanut butter. The riddle our officer sent out read, "It is passed from hand to hand and pocket to pocket, yet whoever takes it doesn't know it. Whoever knows it doesn't want it. And whoever makes it makes sure never to mention it. What is it?" Hell if I know. Someone guessed lice. I was thinking it's probably a cold...? But I opted to answer "boogers" because I'm mature like that. And how did Dee answer? "Snot." Yes, we're kindred spirits. I knew it.

Dee will routinely send me emails full of jokes, youtube vids, and random crap news stories. It really helps me get through my days a little more easily. The other day she was super stressed out, so I sent her a clip from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, when Charlie's mom sings "Cheer Up Charlie" and responded by saying WWCF is among her top choices in her movie catalogue. Ummmm did I mention we're kindred spirits? Considering my favorite movie is the original Parent Trap, closely followed by WWCF, you can imagine how superstoked I was to find this out.

In addition to our email chain, which is obviously completely unnecessary because we equate one half of our cube quad, we share some stories about the random/stupid/awesome things that happen when we're not at work. The best, though, are stories about her son. He's a 10-year-old going on 27 and I've honestly never heard stories about a kid saying funnier things. For example: The other day he was flipping his hair and said, "Hey Mom, you know when I flip my hair like this it really turns girls on." (Uhhh he's 10.) This story was closely followed by a melodramatic tale of his heart getting broken for the first time because Sally McHotterson at his school called him a show off. Ohhhh mah gawd I remember calling boys show offs and thinking it was the worst thing evaaa. I also distinctly remember calling someone a stinky sock and you might as well have washed my mouth out with soap. Shit got real when I busted that one out. But the end-all was when Adam (my fourth grade crush for like 3 weeks) called me a dog. I'm pretty sure I went home and cried for 2 hours straight. Asshole.

Has my life become so mundane that I truly regale over email jokes and stories about 10-year-old's shenanigans? Not a freaking chance. If anything, I consider this normal, if not a little bit awesome. Besides, I'll admit I'm proud of myself for befriending the cool kids in the middle-aged crowd.