Thelma and Louise

I had the best day today. My friend Mindy from Oklahoma blew into town, as she is known to do, and started making plans for us to meet for lunch. Mindy never shows up in Florida without asking me to get together. That is a true friend. When you find that person that actively seeks to include you in their life, hang on to them. They are gold. But be ready. Sometimes they include you in things that are permanent, like tattoos.

Mindy and I have been Disney annual pass holders for years, so it's normal for us to meet in Orlando several times a year for a girls weekend. Once in awhile, our husbands will join us but usually, it's just the two of us. About five years ago, on our way to one of our girls weekends, Thelma got the idea we should go have a peek in a tattoo parlor. I didn't say no but we both agreed we were just there to look around.

I was not planning on getting the tattoo that I had been planning on getting but you know how sometimes you're just minding your own business and the next thing you know you're sitting in some strange guys chair and he's needling you? Then, the needler is such a nice young man and is so polite that, what can you do but just go with it and pretend you aren't going to cry and possibly faint. 

Of course, after watching Louise get inked, Thelma has to do the same because everyone knows those two always go off the cliff together. 

Anyway, we went on our merry way and had a lovely weekend other than spending quite a bit of time trying to figure out how to convince our husbands that Disney now required all Mouseketeers to have ink before entry. Mindy's husband Lain still blames me and threatened to not let us play together anymore. Good thing I'm not afraid of husbands. 

Honestly, I love this girl so much. She's at least fifteen years my junior so the perfect little sister age. We've been friends since she and Lain were newlyweds, more than twenty years and five kids ago. Because of the age difference, our friendship has been a pleasant and unexpected surprise to me, over and over again. But because of our similarities and differences combined with our love and respect for one another, our friendship has always worked really well. I'm so grateful.