Friends Fix Me!

Do you have irrational fears? Oh, of course you do. Mine always surprise me when they show up. Mostly because I don't even realize they exist until they're in front of me.

For instance, I'm heading to Chicago on Thursday to see "Young Frankenstein" with my college roommate, Nancy, and her girls. I can hardly wait. The drive will be no big deal, finding the theater will be no big deal, enjoying the play will be awesome. I'm not even worried about driving around in Chicago, though I've never been to downtown Chicago (I know, I know ... crazy, huh?).

The one thing that was starting to upset me was parking my car. Where would I park? Would I be able to find something that was reasonably close? On and on and on.

Next part of the story. Another college friend who now lives in Chicago asked if we could hook up for a bit while I'm there. Of course! I managed to mention this crazy fear to her and before I knew it, she had me hooked up with an entire map of downtown Chicago parking! I've printed out the vicinity map and that fear is completely alleviated.

Now, honestly, the fear wasn't overwhelming. Just something that I had in my head that was a bigger concern than other things. But, what is so cool about this is that Melodie saw my need, gave me the means with which to deal with it and probably had no idea how powerful it was for me.

I get this really fun email in my box daily. "Netted by the Webbys: Good Digital Stuff Served Daily." Every day there is something fun gleaned from the web that could probably help you in your daily life. So far, it's been great. (and you can sign up for it on Facebook and Twitter too)

Last week, the article was on "Tap Your Virtual Brain Trust." And while it's promoting a service called Aardvark, the method behind this intrigued me. I have 300 friends on Facebook. I know these people, they know me. These are the people I have trusted through the years to help me answer questions and with whom I have experienced wild things and discussed even crazier things! My friends run the gamut of 8th graders just getting a grasp on life to brilliant thinkers, from authors to (I wanted to say zoologists - try out that A-Z thing, but I don't think I know any zoologists - maybe some zoologist wannabes). You get the point.

I love that my friends are my friends! I love that I've found so many old friends again and have renewed those relationships.

What I'm finding out is that even when I'm fearful of something as innocuous as finding a parking place in downtown Chicago, I probably have a friend who will take care of my fear and help me find a great way to deal with it.

Friends are amazing.