A Good Friend

Well, my sweet invisible one, I think you know of my good fortune in friendships. My darlingest little pal Kristen does life-checks on me, just to make sure I'm still breathing. My friend Carla is lovely and kind. Roommate is...gosh. She's more than a fauxbian life partner, she's family I've picked for myself. Karina is a delight to my heart. Cherry is just awesome. The Power From The East....well. Let's just genuflect and be done with that. I have good neighbors [coughRobinROCKScough] and fabulous coworkers. After this weekend, I think we should spend a little bit of time talking about Gluten-Free Jen.

GF Jen got sucked into my life when we were both involved in the Greater Seattle chapter of Romance Writers of America. She tried valiantly to shake me off, really, for years, but finally had to accept her fate. Since she's far too nice to pull off the behavior that succeeds in getting rid of me, she's stuck.

And she handles it with good grace. Really. Only minor bouts of crying over it.

Anyway. Since GF Jen learned of her intolerance to glutens, her life has changed a great deal. She's incredibly vigilant when it comes to food, because the cost of not being so is incredibly high. Pain, illness, malabsorption of food, severe, life-threatening anemia. Oh, the fun of celiac disease!!

[NB: Don't sign up for it. Seriously. Go for a fun disease, like scurvy. What? C'mon. It'll be fun to have scurvy! Who gets to say they have scurvy these days, hmm? Fine. Be that way.]

GF Jen and I spent our weekend in a hotel in Spokane replotting and revising our work and eating in restaurants. Yeah...not so great for my food plan, but thanks to GF Jen's knowledge of surrounding eateries and a very informative website [ glutenfreespokane.com ] we were able to eat our meals without a massive gut-explosion.

I've seen a small reaction when GF Jen inadvertently consumes glutens. Bad. Very, very bad. Ow. Bad.

GF Jen brought with her four gluten-free tarts that weekend. To quote her, "their names are Crystal, Deja, Sable and Bambi." Heeheehee. Peanut butter tarts with a almond paste-based crust.

Oh.

My.

GOD.

I know there were ten BILLION points in each one and dammit, I just don't care. They were AWESOME. I want the recipe. I do. I really, really do. And how I adore a friend who will bring me such deliciousness. Naughty. But oh, so good.

While watching a commercial that showed pretty people enjoying s'mores [YUM] I asked GF Jen if such a thing as GF graham crackers. There are things called gluten free graham crackers, but...[here she grimaced and shook her head] they don't really taste like graham crackers. Then she told me what she does when it's time to have s'mores.

Graham crackers are verboten, obviously, and Hershey bars have glutens in them as well, so GF Jen places her toasted marshmallow between two snickerdoodles. I know! Doesn't that slay you??? And for the chocolate portion of our program...

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.

OH

MY

GOD!!!!!!!!

Surely the cruelty of her telling me this WITHOUT having one in hand to stuff into my gaping maw cannot have escaped your notice, dearest. But I forgive her this. Because she's kind. And funny. And smart. And wickedly talented. And generous. And tenderhearted. And because when all the nonsense with my family happened Thursday night, she did an impression of her small son, with whom she has this type of conversation at least weekly:

"Sister made a mean face at me."

Anyone who can make me laugh after a screamfest with my mother has a price beyond rubies.

I think I'll keep her.