Here's to good friends

In the days after 9-11, I had been laid off, so I was home all day. Nothing was on TV but the news, with horrible images of smoldering rubble and people holding up pictures of missing loved ones. It was heart wrenching, and I dreaded having to go to bed, only to lay there all night thinking of the horror and sadness.

(I swear this is about to get more upbeat.)

I started staying up super late to watch Designing Women on Lifetime. It came on at midnight, after The Golden Girls. Those two episodes each night would make me laugh and help me sleep with good thoughts in my head.

I've been having a rough time of it these past few weeks. Of course nothing compared to 9-11, not even close to that. No, this is more personal. But I've been having trouble going to sleep, my brain always clicking and my imagination monorail always bumps my logic train off the track. Luckily, in addition to the great real friends I have, I can now turn to my old friends Julia, Suzanne, Mary Jo and Charlene. Yep, today I found the first season of Designing Women on DVD!! Best Buy RULES!

Before there were the ladies of Sex and the City, there were the ladies of Sugarbaker's. Love them!! Plus, they were in Atlanta, and I lived there. I love hearing them talking about going places I knew. Phipps Plaza! Lenox Mall! Cobb County! I am still trying to figure out where Julia's house is. Probably Buckhead.

I have always identified more with Mary Jo. Probably because, for starters, we have the same hair. She wants to be brave and tough, and inside, she is. But that is underneath a layer of insecurity. I know that feeling.

I always wanted to be like Julia, who always went off on those great rants. I can do that too, but only on paper. Oh, I can whip off a doozy of a letter or monologue. Words are my weapons in print, but if it's face to face, I turn back in to Mary Jo.

Or Charlene, who is hilarious with her love of psychics and tabloids. And true love. Hopelessly romantic dreamer that I tend to be. Ah, well...

Then there is Suzanne. What girl hasn't been Suzanne? Every once and a while, you have to get that little sassy spring in your step when you're having a good hair day, or a dress you couldn't fit into last year zips up with a bit of breathing room to spare. Every girl likes to be pretty, even if they don't admit it.

And they had each other. Friends till the end. I like that I can watch them again. It puts happy thoughts in my head, and makes me think of the designing women in all of us girls. (And if you are a man and you feel a little Julia or Suzanne sometimes, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that at all. You go with your Sugarbaker self!)

We stick together, too. I know I can count on my girls, and they can count on me. And maybe, someday, I'll get the shoulder pads to do a little something like this:




P.S. Best Buy also had the second season of Knots Landing on DVD. You know I had to have it, and don't even get me started on how much I love Knots Landing. Abby arrives!!! Sid DIES!!!! J.R. comes to visit!!! OH, it's too delicious!