I wonder how many of you have the same good fortune to have friends who you can rely upon for the tricky decisions in life? When I want to know a trendy tasty place to eat, I have several foodie friends to turn to. When I want help with buying clothes, I have a niece who is a fashion savant to rescue me from my middle-age faux pas. When I want to know what to do in cities I haven't been to before, there's always one among my friends who has been there and can tell me about more things to do than I have time to do them in. When there is an impending break up among the ranks, I have many girlfriends who can tell me what to say and what not to say to the heartbroken party.
I can face the truth that while I am a avid cook, I don't always know a dive from a good eatery. My wardrobe looks like it belongs to at least four eccentrics, some of whom like to sew their own ill-advised frocks, who were asked to share a closet. My tourist skills are so lacking, I'm amazed if I find my way out of the foyer of a hotel let alone to an actual point of interest and this is in the age of GPS. I also have a bluntness to my communications that is off-putting. These reasons and many more are why I need friends to function.
Luckily, my spouse was born with a compass in hand which has saved us from certain starvation and death by tourist exposure on many occasions. On pre-GPS car trips, I drove and he navigated, which is the only way we would make it out of the parking space. He also has a diplomatic skill that can smooth over the stickiest of situations usually of my creation, but for when I'm out of his range I need fashionable friends to keep me from throwing good money away on fringed V-necks and hip-widening skirts.
Which makes me reflect upon the question, what on earth do I bring to friendship table? I recently went glass frame shopping with one a friend, who is gifted in all three areas of where to eat, what to where and what to do and I was absolutely useless in the task of exercising discriminating taste. I thought she looked as amazing in every pair of frames she tried on as she does without glasses on. All I could do was lounge on the store's velvet chaise and exclaim how she could choose from any of the frames in the store and still look smashing.
Afterwards, we went to a bakery that had just been brilliantly renovated (I had overlooked that fact, of course) and she read out the daily soup, split pea with goat cheese and mint and pronounced it sounded delicious. I ordered the soup--wow! I rushed home to reproduce the soup it was so good. A previous shopping trip for glasses for her, she had introduced me to another exquisite coffee shop where the chocolate croissants are made in another dimension of deliciousness, or at least that's what my taste buds thought.
I can't really think of any contributions I'm making on the practical side of friendships, only a willingness to be schooled in all things sophisticated and divine?
