A few words on friends (grab a tissue or two if you find yourself emotional)

I have a few things to say about friends.

But first, let me preface with a little bit if background.

When I was younger, I never went out of my way to be very social. I wouldn't say I was recluse, I think that would be overstating the fact. But simply said, all through junior high and high school I think I could count my close friends on 10 fingers or less. We did everything together and I never really felt a need to branch out. I was happy.

Now, 12 years after high school, I couldn't tell you where any of those friends are. We all went our separate ways when high school ended, and that was that. However, something have not changed one bit.

I still don't consider myself a very social person. I have a core group of close friends, and again I can count them on 10 fingers or less. And yet again, I am perfectly content with my friends and feel very little need to branch out in search of more.

Ok, preface complete lets move on to today. I recently have come to grips with some rather serious emotions and problems that I have with a certain aspect of my life (don't worry mom, things here at home are perfectly fine). I don't plan to get into detail here about this, that's not the point of my little diatribe here.

The point is this: I started dealing with this a long time ago. I've been bottling these emotions for a quite some time, and I think its slowly been festering inside me like some sort of fuzzy fungus. So I finally did something I should have done a while ago. I confided in my wife and my closest of friends.

So to these people I have to say the following:

Wife: You are amazing, and wonderful. I can't say enough how much I love you, and appreciate the fact that you put with me and all of my shenanigans. You know when to listen, and you are certainly wiser than I am at times, and provide some much needed common sense in my life.

Friend #1: I appreciate your open door policy. I know I can always come to you with an issue and find the door open long enough for me to barge in and close it. Always you have been there for me as a friend, and I can't say enough how important that is to me. I hope that you understand, I don't plan to offer devotions in your name, nor do I plan to write him a sappy letter. I would, though, offer the man a very manly hug, complete with back slapping and grunting.

Friend #2: Always a good listener, sage advice (most of the time, there was this "soak it in hot water thing....). Clearly, of the friends acquired here since I relocated to this area, one of the most unexpected and certainly valuable.

Friend #3: I have known you the longest of those that I list here. And I have to say, you and I are stuck together for what appears to be a very long time. And I consider myself lucky for it. However, I am taking this moment, here on the world wide web, to let the world know you won by luck, and you know it.

So, having said all that, I will simply end by saying I am grateful to be surrounded by such quality people.