In honor of a very special friend's very special birthday... which actually happened last year and for which we had a lovely celebration today--exactly one year later, I say
Happy Birthday Dana!
I feel very bad that I missed the significance of last year's birthday because Dana is a special friend who asks for little and gives so much. How did I let that day come and go without acknowledging its significance? Dana is that friend that is always there and always cares. She has picked up my kids from childcare, preschool, elementary school, synagogue, middle school & high school (even when her kids didn't go to that school). In an emergency, she has been there to pick up Lily from doggie daycare. She is on every one of our emergency lists across the city, right after my Mom and Dad and has been for over 10 years. She is a shoulder to cry on and a friend to laugh with--and we do laugh, a lot. I love to travel with Dana, we love bus tours and room service and laughing about the funny people we meet, especially on said bus tours.
A little story about one of my favorite trips... in early January 2004 a huge snow & ice storm hit Portland. No big deal except we were scheduled on a Caribbean cruise leaving out of New Orleans at the end of the week. Our flight was set to leave Portland on Wednesday with a stop in San Francisco and then on to NoLA. No problem except they closed PDX (which they hardly ever do) and I knew there was no way they were going to open it in time for our flight. I was devastated. I LOVE New Orleans, not to mention there was no way I was missing a cruise.
So I fretted and fretted and then I begged Michael to put the chains on the car. I called up the Melnicks and said "we're driving to San Francisco to catch our connection... are you with us" and of course--they were--and we did. We left Portland at 8:00pm on Tuesday night and drove all night and arrived in SFO with a couple hours to spare before catching our flight to New Orleans. It worked. And, they ended up not opening up the Portland Airport until Sunday... the day our cruise sailed. There is no way we would have made it. We got to spend our 4 days in one of my favorite cities and then we cruised the Caribbean stopping in Belize, Honduras and Cozumel.
We had such a great time on that trip and I wish we could do it again... tomorrow.
Happy Happy Birthday Dana.
(Oh, and Jeff, you did a great job today!)
2 comments:
Dear Kari,
Thank you for a beautiful tribute. All I can say is that you make it very easy to be a good friend. Your family is lucky to have had you their whole lives. I'm lucky to have you now.
Love, Dana
You are so sweet, but this is about you, not me.... its my turn to give something back to you. I think that time is now.
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