True Life: This is Me Now

First off, I feel like a better name for this post at the moment would be 'True Life:  I Don't Know How to Use Hot Rollers.'  Seriously... what's so hard about them?  I don't know.  They continue to frustrate and madden me, yet I continue to attempt to make them work to my benefit.  (Perhaps it's just as much that I have no more idea what to do with this mane of hair I've found myself with than I have for what to do with the rollers.  I'm hopeless.)
Anyway, for both your interest and my sanity, I won't subject you to a diatribe on hot rollers.
Moving on.
I want to start by saying a huge thank you to all of you for your comments, emails, facebook messages, phone calls, texts, and personal conversations to let me know that you were thinking about and praying for me and my ongoing struggle with losing weight.  Y'all have no idea how much those words meant to me, and I thank you all so much for your love and support.  I am truly joyous to report that I've had eight successful days and lost four pounds.  It's a tiny chink in my target number but a chink nonetheless.  I'm taking things one day at a time, trying to pray through all of my shortcomings, and talking to God like crazy.  Keep those thoughts and prayers coming; y'all are such a blessing in my life!!
That provides the perfect segue for the next thing I wanted to say.  True friendship is seriously one of the greatest blessings in this life.  Growing up, friendship is relatively easy.  It usually consists of things shared--common interests.  Who likes to play the same games at recess, who likes to see the same movies or play the same sports, who likes to go to the same places and do the same things.  The older you grow, however, the more difficult it becomes to find people who align with the things that are important to you.  Just enjoying doing the same things isn't enough any more.
True friendship in adulthood (whether I feel like it or not, I am, in fact, an adult...) is about unconditional love, acceptance, loyalty, fellowship, history, respect, appreciation, support, and sincerity.  True friends are difficult to find and, due to distance, families, jobs, and the demands of everyday life, even more difficult to hold onto.  More often than I'd like to admit, life just gets in the way.
I have had several reminders lately, though, of the fact that true friendship lasts a lifetime.  A weekend at home including time spent with friends I've known since junior high (and before); a marathon dinner with a friend I've had since I was five; a wedding reunion with some of my most favorite friends from college.  These are not all people I talk to everyday; some of these are not people I talk to every week or even every month.  That does not change the fact, however, that they mean the world to me, and I can count on them for anything.  I love them with my whole heart, and I cannot imagine my life without them.
I look around my life sometimes, and the blessings truly overwhelm me.  I have abundant gifts, and God has showered my life with love and joy.  I have family that are my friends and friends that feel like family.  One true friend is more than any one person can ask for, having a group of them is more than the mind can conceive. 
I know that each of you have people in your lives who are your true friends.  Treasure them, and tell them how much they mean to you.  
To my true friends, you know who you are.  Thank you for all the gifts you bring to my life, and thank you for the constant love and support you provide me.  Thank you for laughing with me and challenging me and encouraging me and putting up with me.  Thank you for listening to me rant and rave and enduring my shadiness.  Thank you for building me up when I'm so quick to tear myself down.  Just, well, thank you.
I love all of you to the moon and back.