I want to draw my opinion of people after I've given them the chance to be the best version of themselves that they can be.

Which means that that's something that I usually try to bring out in them. 

Letting someone be their best, all while being themselves, is one of the greatest gifts that friends can give. 

People who know me well know that I can be kinda hilarious. That doesn't just depend on me, though. It depends on the right people being in my life. Some people will just give you the stink eye when they so much as smell the scent of fun. I respect them. I don't know them, and I can't draw an opinion about them.

But they are significant because they make me appreciate my best friends.

Because Julia, Ashlee, Ahalya, Sara, Liz? Talked to them all this month. And they let me be funny and kind and contemplative and fun. 

And Rheanna and Stephanie and Lori?  The same.

And Alison and Helen and Drew? The same. 

And the group at my St. Louis church? The same. 

Kids? The same. 

The King Lab? The same.

My dodgeball friends? The same. 

Life doesn't have to be filled with wonderful people. I'm so lucky that mine generally is. I've had times of waiting for the right people. I've had times of choosing not to gossip. I've had times of wondering if I were being transformed into a boring person, because sometimes no one bothers to be fun and funny and kind in that extraordinary business that is life. 

But then someone walks into your life that helps you uncover another piece of yourself. We can uncover a lot alone, but we ALL need other people to discover many parts of who we are, and who we are capable of being. It's a balance. 

Dodgeball is like that for me. Part of me wishes I were staying here with my midwestern boyz forever. They're so fun, kind, inclusive to EVERY person who comes. I've played some fiercely fun games. Afterwards, we all just go out to eat and laugh. Because they let me be myself, I get to be hilarious and warm. And they get to be awesome. I don't "like" any of them, but I LOVE all of them. I appreciate the gift of their time and their personalities (and their momma's job at raising them), and I'm excited every Wednesday night to sip a Shirley Temple and laugh and laugh and chat and laugh. It could easily be different.

In other news, today was the FIRST day that I saw all the babies at baby clinic and wrote up their evaluation results super-quickly, thus impressing my CI. There have been good things and sad things this week. The good thing is my CI's daughters love me and want me to go on a picnic with them (they sometimes stop by after school). They're 9, 6, and 6.

The sad thing is that I found out today that a baby that I evaluated just two weeks ago died.  It's another reminder that life is precious, and the time we spend appreciating the people that we love is always an important use of time. The rest is all secondary.