You may not know this, internet, but I don’t talk about feelings. I’m, in fact, a pretty damn private person.  I want to tell you about how I’ve been feeling so very loved lately by all of my friends and others that I can hardly contain myself, but that’s for a later post.  This post is all about one extremely cool lady.

I’ve been lucky enough that I’ve had many friends that I considered to be close, and would even call sisters.  I’ve given these women love, and gotten it in return, and had some of the most awe inspiring friendships I could possibly imagine.  This one, though.  This one takes the cake.

benny, and ani. It's been a while, but I think it was Fiddler on the Roof.

This beautiful lady is the best friend I’ve ever had.  She’s strong.  She’s a striking and amazing artist.  She’s loud and loving and violent at just the right times.  She supports my crazy ideas, and makes me extremely cool things.  She and her husband have made two of the most beautiful and intelligent children I’ve ever met. In short: she is everything you want in a best friend.

She’s been having a hard time lately, though, and I can’t do nearly as much as I wish I could.  I want her to know that she is loved, in all the best and worst ways.  We’ll grow old drinking whatever drink has caught our fancy that week, and fighting whatever fight we’re putting our energies into, and I can’t imagine the rest of my life without my dear sister, Ani.

So, here’s this, for you:

love

Together, we can get through anything.  Promise.

letters at theios.

I finished round 1 of the letter list last night, and even started on round 2.  Round 1 is full of answers to the questions I was asked.  Round 2 will have all kinds of randomness.  I came up with an awesome idea for round 3 last night.  It means a trip to the craft store, and lots of cutting and glue.  If you are on the list, you will be happy with the results.  I promise.

With email, and text messaging, and direct messaging, and any of the other numerous and efficient ways to get ahold of other people, not many people would argue against letter writing as a form of communication being a lost art.

Nearly ten years ago, though, a very good friend taught me a new way to look at letter writing.  Instead of a way to communicate anything specific, or to ask any questions that needed answering, we’d use them to communicate a feeling or to describe our thought processes about eternal questions.  As we had time, we’d wind our way through a list of people who wanted to get letters, over and over and over.  The lists encompassed a hugely varied group of people, with hugely varied levels of acquaintance.  To be on The List was a privileged.

First half of round 1.

The letters themselves were varied, too.  One would be pages of ramblings about why I could tell that the man across the room was probably in love with the waitress, or a single sheet of paper with a heart drawn in crayon, or my own version of the bucket list, or me trying to work out why my heart always felt hope when I saw the color yellow.

Over the last two years I’ve missed letter writing more and more.  I’ve started getting better about actually getting letters written, but I don’t have many people to write to.  If you’re interested in being on The List, there’s a simple form to fill out.  I require nothing from you, save a name and an address.

I have this thing about doors.  Unless there are obvious privacy issues, the doors around me are always open.

Manhattan.

I like it that way.