5:25 a.m. I stepped in dog poo

This morning, in the dark, on the front door rug, when I let Cash out to go pottie.

Mrs. Pennock I presume?

Charity

Brief History:  We first met while I was home on a 3 week furlough from Zambia.  She came over when I cooked Zambian food.  Lou thought we'd really connect.  Upon returning home permanently from Zambia she became my roommate.  However, I didn't recall ever having met her before.  We were roommates for just shy of 2 years when she married her husband Andy and moved to North Carolina.

What I like about YOU!

Charity is the only person to whom I ever have given up the mother hen power.  What I mean by that is when I live with a group of gals, I am the mother hen.  I make sure that all of the household logistics are taken care of.  Cleaning, shopping, bills, etc.  Charity was the mother hen when we lived together.  It was so refreshing.  I trusted her completely, and became so reliant upon her, I rarely knew my own schedule.  I would ask her what I was doing next week.  She didn't know either, but because of her role in my life, I assumed she would and disregarded all time organizational skills that should have been mine.  It was lovely.

Charity is smart.  Really smart.  She makes you think about things you would never think about, or at least things I would never think about.  Such as intentionally living in a small space and optimizing it.  I think she even knows the escape and defense plan if Lincoln, NE is ever attacked by Zombies.  She really gets what's on the news too, she sees the bigger picture of the world and the people in it.  She just knows how to think.

One of my absolute favorite things about Charity is her ability to ask really great questions.  She asks great questions in such a way that you aren't hesitant to give an answer.  You know she really wants to know.  And her questions get was down into the core of your heart.  There are many memories around our kitchen table, hashing out life, and answering Charity's questions.  I value her take on my world, because she helps me understand it.  I often wish she were in Lincoln, because I don't always know the questions, and it always seemed to come so easily to her.

Charity introduced me to the pursuit of great wine.  That's all I'll say on that one.

I like that Charity can watch TV alone and laugh out loud just as loud as she would if there were someone else in the room.

Delightful.

 

 

We call her RT

Rebecca.  Her name starts with R, so I thought it would be appropriate for her to go next.

Brief History: I met Rebecca in 2003 after returning from Zambia.  She and her husband lived right next door to my roommates and I on 8th Street.  There was way more history there than I realized.  She quickly morphed from neighbor to friend.  For several years now she and her family have been apart of sharing dinner with me and some other folks once a week.  When I'm with her I can't help but be real.

What I like about YOU!

I like Rebecca's gitter-done mentality.  She seizes the opportunity to complete.  I have few friends who are like me in this way, so I feel a special connection or maybe I just feel more normal and that's relieving.

I love her hospitality.  When I go to her place to eat, she brings it all.  Homemade everything, uber yummy.  We also shares my love for hotdogs.

Rebecca understands what it means to lay down her life for others.  She chases after 4-year-old Livia every day, often to the point of exhaustion, but she keeps plugging on.  On top of that, she will always, always be there is you need her.  She'll be there for you even if it just makes things easier.

Speaking of her 4-year-old, I love her honesty about the challenges of parenting (and marriage).  I feel like I always get real life when I'm with Rebecca.  She doesn't downplay how stinkin' hard it is to be an extroverted stay-at-home-mom with a spirited child that is living out her sinful nature.  I love how she openly communicates what she needs.  Such as needing to go out with the girls, away from her child, and drink margaritas.

I mentioned that Rebecca is extroverted.  Well, let me tell you that her extroversion is delightful.  If she hears us chatting on the front porch she well pop her head around the screen door and either inform us that she's putting on her shoes and will be right over, or berates us about being out there and not calling her.  I love it.

Rebecca has the non-emergency police hotline memorized.  I think if they still existed, Rebecca's would be a McGruff House.