“True friendship is a very helpful thing indeed,” said Mrs. Allan, “and we should have a very high ideal of it, and never sully it by any failure in truth and sincerity. I fear they name of friendship is often degraded to a kind of intimacy that has nothing of real friendship in it.”

“Yes,…..like Gertie Pye’s and Julia Bell’s…….If we have friends, we should look only for the best in them and give them the best that is in us, don’t you think? Then friendship would be the most beautiful thing in the world.”

Well, it’s official: I have had a friend for twenty years. The most interesting thing is that it is the most beautiful thing that I have. I just happened to stop by my PO Box on Friday and had a Christmas card in there from my long time friend, Lea Anne Scott. She left in the note that she would be in Georgia until 1/05. So I made arrangements and called on her and her family on Saturday. Wow, she looks exactly the same as she has since high school. Her brother on the other hand, has serious facial hair growth. He had a tremendous beard. It was strange to see her because it was as though no time had passed. We picked up just like we had gone to the mall the day before or a mission trip the weekend prior to the visit. Once all the hello’s and “how’s-the-family’s” were over with, we fell right into step of being Lea Anne and Rachel. I felt like spending the night and talking until the wee hours of the morning, watching her turn pillows on her feet and sneaking in the dark and making a soda or tea or ice-cream. The only thing that was out of place was the drive. The drive to Silver Hill used to be twenty minutes. Now it is two hours to Rome. Wow. But it was worth it. What a wonderful afternoon we had together. We walked to a restaurant and had lunch and then to a cute shop called “All dressed up” and went shopping. Then we headed back to the house for football and basketball. Tech won, Tech lost. It was so comforting being there.

Sunday I had a business meeting to attend to that swallowed up my whole afternoon. The morning was taken by brunch with the boys at Alice’s Restaurant. John and I have brunch with his boys and whoever they bring with them, on Sunday mornings. My whole day was taken up by other people, so I took up the evening with me. I did a little cleaning and putting away of new things. I went to get movies and shampoo. I should have just gotten all my groceries, but I couldn’t find my checkbook anywhere (it turns out the car ate it and it was under the seat). So I went home and relaxed. The other thing I did was to run down to Commerce and shop for a couple new pairs of pants (one pair of gap jeans, one pair of gap black velveteen pants = $20.00: gotta love the outlets). The other weird thing that happened last night is that my Mom interviewed me for her Master’s class. Weird.

All in all it was a good weekend. I am really glad that it is over and I think that I am going to clean and sleep tonight. Ahh…….