Lyda here. Yes, today is that most wonderous of days – the birthday of my BFF and partner in crime and blogging, Anna-Liza!!!

Happy Birthday, you Goddess you!

I was tempted to write:

“Happy Birthday, bitch!”

as the post title - and she totally would have laughed. In fact, I think I hear her laughing now.

Anna-Liza is the Coolest Chick in the History of the Universe. Really. I think she still has the trophy somewhere… Cleopatra and Zena are still pissed.

In the twenty-eight years we’ve known each other, we have lived in different states far too much and in the same place far too little. But we have stayed as close as that first year in college. And knowing her has made all the difference in my life.

Over the years, she’s talked me into all kinds of adventures, big and small – including knitting. That’s right, she’s a yarn pusher.  She’s talked me into wearing clothes I was afraid to wear, doing things I was afraid to do, and going with my instincts when I was afraid to. She is one of the first people to see anything I’ve written, and the first to hear about art projects, quilts, and relationships.

We’ve been with each other through marriages, divorces, and pregnancies. Through uncounted relationships and jobs, bad and good and in-between. She cried with me when I miscarried. She refused to be driven away by my-then-husband – who drove everyone else away – and she held my hand when I left him. She cheered when I went to graduate school. She has sat up nights talking me down from the ledge more times than either of us care to remember.

And I’ve tried to do the same for her.

We talk about everything – menz, sex, child rearing, politics, fiber, work, sex, movies, projects, menz, the environment, clothes, sex… We share recipes and books. We plan together, and ask each other’s opinions, and cheer each other on. And we laugh. A lot.

We can talk on the phone for hours at a time – really, hours! - but there’s never enough time to say everything, to laugh about everything, to contemplate everything. We email a lot too; some weeks we email several times every day. Never at work, of course not. This blog is a way for us to stay connected, to make each other laugh, to share our lives in a cool and different way. And to invite all of ya’ll into our weird and wonderful world.

Anna-Liza is spiritual and earthy, devastatingly intelligent and totally goofy, practical and romantic, wild and sophisticated, fierce and loving, sexy and funny. And beautiful. I am a bit jealous of those who get to be around her all the time. Damn Pointy Mountains, always in my way!  She’s the best woman I’ve ever known.

We’ve lived all of our adult lives together as best friends. We’ve grown up together. No one else in the world knows what we know about each other – and no one ever will. Unless, of course, we write that memoir we’re always talking about. Bwahahaha!  And every time I think I know it all, she surprises me again.

Some day, when we’re ancient crones, we’ll sit on a porch rocking together, and tell stories of our adventures that will completely embarass our relations. Oh yes, we will.

We’ll be knitting, no doubt. By then, I might be making something other than a scarf. Ah, another reason to move to Colorado – my knitting will improve. But I digress.

And we’ll definitely be laughing. There will be lots of laughing.

Thanks to her, there always is.

Happy B-Day, girlfriend! LET THE WILD RUMPUS START!!