September 27 - A Great Day

Today was my great friend's birthday. Keem (so affectionately termed by Dana) is a wonderful person and this post is dedicated to her (I hope she reads it).

I have known Keem for over four years now. I call her Mom sometimes. This needs explanation.

Dana and Keem are roommates. They went to get their haircut and the place ended up putting Dana's last name with Keem's first name. One of the bosses at work found this out and teased them about being married. They're not, but it just seemed fun. They're actually more like sisters.

Adam went with Dana once to get his haircut. The bill showed up with Adam's first name and Dana's last name. We figured he must be the son of Keem and Dana. Since Adam is my "little brother", I figured Dana is my dad and Keem is my mom. Matt is my "big brother" and so Scott is then Keem and Dana's son-in-law. Rich is also Keem and Dana's son-in-law.

None of us are actually related but there are some friends in life that feel like family. Our little family may not meet the conventional definition of a family, but it's filled with love. That's the most important part.

(For those who have read previous posts about my mother, I'm not talking about Keem in those posts. They are about the woman who actually gave birth to me and I love her too.)

The original Sheepsheadians are Keem, Dana, Adam, and I. Matt is now a true Sheepsheadian. We used to all work the night shift at work and would go to the all-night diner EVERY single night after work. We would play cards, laughing, and smiling for hours. Keem and I would sometimes sit in the car after cards, sharing stories about our lives while Adam drove Dana home (this was before Dana and Keem were roommates).

For Christmas one year, Keem had the wonderful idea of creating scrapbooks of our adventures for Dana and Adam. She's the one who actually turned me onto the world of scrapbooking. We spent weeks at my mom's house, going through photos, cropping, framing, etc. and came up with four fantastic albums. The albums told stories of our group going to the all-night diner, taking our road trip to Iowa, and the BNL concert we all saw together.

The first night Keem and I sat and talked was after work. We sat in the parking ramp until about 6 in the morning (we had both gotten off around 11 PM). We listened to the King of the Hill soundtrack over and over that night. One of the songs on the soundtrack is a BNL song about a paranoid man who thinks THEY are out to get him. There is a line, "Everybody open your mouth, everyone just say AH!" It is followed by a chorus of "AHHH!" We had lots of fun singing the AH off-key.

For a few weeks, Keem and I had a Twilight Zone marathon, watching all the episodes my dad had taped off of the Sci-Fi channel for a New Year's Eve/Day marathon. What I remember most about watching all those episodes was the fact a Subway commercial kept playing over and over. It was about Jared helping a firefighter lose weight by eating tons of subs. The commercial had worn out its welcome on Keem's mind and she sang, in perfect tune and unison, "**** off Subway" each time. I started letting the commercials play just to annoy Keem and then we would laugh. Maybe you had to be there, but it was really funny. I bring it up because it is a memory of Keem and I remember the good feeling of friendship while we watched all those episodes of The Twilight Zone.

Keem always has a great story to share. I wish she'd share more of them on Out of the Mouths of Morons so the world could hear the craziness she deals with each day. She tells wonderful stories about her past work experiences and her days of living in Wisconsin.

Keem is fun to scrapbook and stamp with. Her ideas are super creative and I'm always amazed at how amazing her pages turn out. She'd like to go into business involving scrapping and stamping and I'd love to see her do it. She has such talent and a great eye for special crafts.

I love it when Keem goes out with the group. We laugh and smile and everyone feels happy to be around her. More people in the world could benefit from Keem's good heart.

The other day I had the Bruce Springsteen song, "Glory Days" stuck in my head. I don't know why it was there, but it was. I kept thinking back to what I would define as my Glory Days. It would have to be when the Sheepsheadians formed and we started our adventures. It has been a fantastic journey and I love my friends. They are the family I got to pick.

Happy Birthday Keem! You are the best and a truly wonderful person. The world is lucky to have you in it.

1 Comments:

At 12:36 AM, CarpeDM said...

This was a really fun day. I am fond of Keem. We should keep her.