FRIENDS ...

There are few of us in life who actually have a bestest friend that we are almost one with. Certainly everyone deserves to have someone like this in thier lives, even if it is thier spouse or person of the same sex. For me this is a friend that I met shortly after my 1st son; Jordan was born. The day was October 16th, 1991 and oddly enough we were both far from home.

To set the scene on how we met, I will first start with before we met so you can understand how peculiar it was and how we've both believed ever since that it was meant to be.

First, I was a freshman in HS in Indiana where I met my husband who was a senior. My husband (Adam) and I knew of eachother from mutual friends at the time, just hanging out and stuff mainly; and Brian who was to be her husband (she didn't go to our school, but a neighboring school), was in the growd of us all, but we didn't really hang out a whole lot at that time with him either. There were ALOT of "clicks" in our school and as I really did not have a whole lot of friends, I really didn't fit in anywhere ... so I just hang about with whoever. Well of course that all changed when my husband broke up with a GF and I phoned him to tell him I was sorry ... he then asked me to go out with him. The year was 1990 and he had just graduated. We were an instant item - going out with eachother for a few months felt good - he was my first boyfriend and even to my parents dismay of having one, we still went out. Well my parents grew to like him more and things got serious - to which I ended up getting pregnant with our first son; Jordan. You know how in HS - you think you know it all) Well the jobs we had at the time obviously weren't going to cut it, so my husband proposed to me then joined the Army. We got married on February 10th, of 1991, he left for basic February 14th, of 1991 and I stayed and finished out the year of school while he did basic and AIT in South Carolina. Shortly after both of those ended - I gave birth to our son on July 20th, 1991 and we left for our new home at Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey on August 16th, 1991. For two months I really didn't know what to do with myself, I had a new baby and was far away from everyone that I knew. Of course I was scared, but yet it was cool and new all at the same time. Then on October 16th, 1991 we decided to go to the mall and as fate would have it - a familiar face appeared in the crowd. It was Brian who had graduated with Adam and was now married to Tammy .... (same name as me - isn't that neat?!) ... it was her birthday, and we hit it off the second that we met ! From that moment on we've had kids she's gotten divorced from Brian but we are still the bestest of friends. She is the ONLY one I can TELL ANYTHING tooo and she don't care, we laugh for hours at the stupidist of things and talk for days, send e-mails and sometimes even go for periods of time when we don't talk ... but through it all she is always there. 900+ miles away from where we both grew up and we become best friends. I swear I have NEVER had anyone in my life like her - she can ask me if she looks good in something and if I don't think so, I'm not going to lie, so I tell her the truth and she don't get pissed - she'll just say cool, and I am the same way. Who else can laugh over the infamous " Hairy salad incident" that was 15 years ago ... or the "Underwear fiasco" .... I swear, it was the best of times. We now both live apart from eachother but we talk about once a week. She is EXACTLY my EXACT opposite ... I swear, but why we get along so well, is still beyond me, we both just guess it is because we both see something in eachother that we like. I am married with going on 5 kids, - leading an average life I suppose, I love country music and NASCAR and HATE football - while she has two kids both in thier teens now and not having anymore. She has had a boyfriend for 5 + years now and owns a swingers club, and 2 other companies of her own. She LOVES rock music and football and HATES NASCAR ! Like I said .... my EXACT opposite ! But you know what .... I LOVE HER .... and I don't mean in THAT way people, I mean like a sister or something, I miss her so much sometimes I want to cry. The times with her are always the best times and we have so much fun it is unbelievable !

I truly believe that EVERY person comes into others lives for some reason, even if we do not know what that reason is. Sometimes just a smile from someone or a giggle from reading ones page here on 360 can make someones day a ton better than it once was. Sometimes it is just to know that SOMEONE cares. I have learned here that there are some people in life that aren't worthy of my friendship - yet on the other hand I have made alot of friends here on 360. I can see that alot of people are actually "human" and not some manifestation of my mind to be something that they are not. Lord knows we can not ask some people to actually be "real" .... but it is nice to know that there are some that actually care about others and can give someone a chuckle, making thier whole day with just a few words. To the internet people that have become good friends of mine I Thank You. To my BFF Tammy, I Thank You ! I am sincerely hoping to keep all of my friends and get to know you all alot better as time goes on. I see something in so many of you that help me or make me to feel better that I am delighted everyday to come and read your pages. (I am NOT addicted Adam .... LOL !) You know sometimes as a stay at home mom, it is nice to see that other people live similarly as I do - where kids are getting on thier nerves or the laundry is piling up, etc. I know being a mom isn't all roses all the time, sometimes can be down right boring - but it is great to share all times with my friends ...

I hope that all of you have a great friend to keep you up when you need to be or just to keep you laughing too !

This page is dedicated to all of my friends ! :O}~ Thank You for being my friend !

And remember: a good laugh is ALWAYS needed !

TAMMIE

p.s. Tammmmmmy - I will get you to 360 if it KILLS me !!!! MUAH -ha haa hahaha !