I am fortunate enough to have what seems like an insane (and growing!) number of beautiful, talented, kind people as my friends.
And I am ridiculously proud of all of them for everything they do which is a good feeling, I would even venture to say perhaps the BEST feeling.
I just love my friends, is all I want to say. I keep trying to talk around it but it always comes back to that. It may seem like an obvious thing to say but I need to say it occasionally. Experience has shown me there is nothing more valuable in life than a true friend, and I've resolved never to take that for granted.
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Today though I want to talk about one special friend in particular: the future famous stand-up comedienne Carolyn Racine.
(It's her birthday in a few days.)
I also want to talk about karaoke, because I understand that it's National Karaoke Week and I am just delighted that that exists.
The first time I did karaoke with Carolyn, she had just come from a family funeral. She was wearing a green shirt. And she decided to sing, of all the many possible songs out there to sing, this one:
The song: Usher, "Love In This Club"; 2008
As you may imagine, this was a truly transcendent karaoke experience and I remember watching her with that feeling -- the best feeling, you may recall -- of "THAT's my friend? That's my friend!!"
Then she walked off the stage, I asked her if she'd ever done that song at karaoke before, and she said (in this perfectly deadpan way that anyone who has met Carolyn will surely recognize), "Oh, I've never done karaoke before."
Friends, I call that CHUTZPAH, and this is just one of the many facets of Carolyn that inspire my admiration and respect. I won't get too far into reminiscing about Carolyn here, because she's not DEAD or anything, it's just her birthday. (Almost.)
There's a perfect combination of factors that lead me to be continually compelled by someone, and it's this: that I understand them, but they still surprise me. And even though I have known Carolyn for years, have travelled internationally with her, have even cried on her shoulder after drinking too much red wine and watching Fiddler on the Roof, I am always surprised by her talent, her drive, and the depth of her observations about people and the world.
And that's a real, real good thing. Happy birthday, boo. I just realized I forgot to send you a card.
Yrs,
AW
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