Could I BE any more grateful?

“When it hasn’t been your day, your month or even your year”

Said all of us to 2020.

“How you doin’?”

Ok don’t answer that. It’s been tough, but one thing you can count on is that F.R.I.E.N.D.S will always be there for you.

Today I am grateful for Friends, the series, that still gets me through the low days, the days when I’m sick or the days when I’m just in need of a little comfort and familiarity. It’s actually white noise for me now. I can do other activities with Friends playing in the background and I don’t have to look up to know exactly what is going on. I know what they know.

“They don’t know that we know they know we know.”

There is comfort in knowing what the characters are going to say. There is comfort in knowing what happens next which is something that is missing for most of us right now.

“I got off the plane.”

I am grateful for Friends 25th Anniversary that got me to New York City. Visiting NYC was on my vision board, the A2 cardboard laminated poster (that keeps falling off my wall) filled with magazine cuttings of goals, wishes, thoughts, a dream home, shoes, and J Lo’s butt. Hey that image was 3 fold – the jeans were gorgeous, she is a multitalented powerhouse female icon of creativity, strength and resilience, and yes the sexy butt is goal worthy. There I said it. Ok?
If it wasn’t for Friends and my sister I might never have made it there. I am grateful for the last minute impromptu impulsive decision to head off to the Big Apple with my sister and Mom. Sitting here today, under lockdown, I cannot express enough the joy I feel of having thrown caution and credit card limits to the wind and experienced something so amazing. I look at the photos on my wall every day (that was before Miss Janey replaced them with her own artwork of Casper the ghost and what looks like Nemo in a fish bowl staring at a butterfly) and am reminded of the fact that life is short and if I had hesitated or put it off, I would not have a bank of beautiful memories to access.

New York was part of it, but I’m also grateful to the Friends 25th Anniversary which got my mom, my sister and I reunited, three of us from three different locations together for three unbelievably amazing days. The last time we were all together on an adventure was a trip to Dublin about 12 years ago. I am grateful for the time we got to spend together. Moments like that are priceless. Well actually according to my bank statement there is a price, but it was soooo worth it.

And lastly, I am grateful for the way in which Friends connects us all and creates a sub language we all can speak. The show aired at a time when we didn’t even know the word series. We called it a TV show and we didn’t refer to episode numbers then either, which is why they were titled “The one where…”. Also, FYI you can watch them in any order and they are still funny and relevant.

The one where… we all watched it together.

Friends aired at a time before Netflix and even cell phones! Where families had one TV in the house and we all watched the same thing at the same time creating a sense of collective community.

“We were on a break!”

And we are going to be on one for a while yet.
I’m feeling that community vibe once more now during lockdown.

“Welcome to the real world. It sucks. You gonna love it”

We are all in the same boat, experiencing the same things, just trying to get by.

“I am not so good with the advice. Can I interest you in a sarcastic comment?”

What I can suggest though is that in order to get through this time, you may need to take your frame of mind and …

“Pivot! Pivot! Pivot! Pivot! Pivot!”