Thank You Dear Friend

The most time I spent in one place on this fabulous road trip is at 1541 1/2 Silver Lake Blvd., Los Angeles, where my good friend Corey resides. He is a died-in-the-wool bachelor who lives in a tiny little apartment on one of the busiest streets in this area. But being the good friend that he is, and has been for 15+ years, he opened up his private sanctuary to me when I was in the area. I brought in one large suitcase, one medium suitcase (full of girly things), and a whole bunch of small bags full of shoes and magazines and books and beach things, etc. Well, I've been living out of my car for two weeks - what do you expect? I put some of the aforementioned girly things in his bathroom and hung sweaters and blouses in his hallway. I take up space in his fridge with berries and veggies and water bottles. I hog outlets for my computer and phone and fan. In other words, I don't just "take up a tiny corner," and he has been such a sweetheart about the whole thing.

In those 15+ years we've never spent this much time in each other's space before. I cannot tell you how much it has meant to me to have a guy who truly values his "alone time" and his "own space" agree to spend so much time with me. He took a couple of days off work and played around in Santa Barbara with me, including going to the Mission, which I'm sure was not on his top 10 things to do. Then when I got to Los Angeles we spent a day at the Huntington Library and Gardens, had a picnic at Point Vicente Lighthouse, the fabulous John Williams concert at the Hollywood Bowl, the surreal experience on Catalina Island, two rootbeer floats and many, many meals, and today we had lunch and went to a movie together. We stayed up nights watching Sherlock Holmes, an interesting vampire movie, and talked and talked and talked. I got really mad at him once and I'm sure he was ready to kick me out at least once. We have laughed so much and debated non-stop and probably worn each other out emotionally. But this friendship has lasted through up and down, in and out, forwards and backwards, and we continue to evolve not only as friends but as individuals.

Thank you Corey, from the bottom of my heart, for your graciousness in letting me invade your space, for your intellect, for your humor, not so much for your potty mouth, and for your friendship even when it gets hard to be my friend. I love you dearly. Until we meet again, we will always have  . . . Olaf. "Do you wanna build a snowman?"