"thank god we can choose our friends"

as most of you know (or have easily extrapolated), my blogmate and i are pretty good friends. to the extent that i'm a fairly well-adjusted person, i can often credit my emotional well-being to her willingness to listen to the details of my life as told in play-by-play form, and from her i get all sorts of validation... or at least distraction. it's not really her style to talk me off yet another ledge by telling me that i'm a good person- her brand of friend-therapy is usually to derail me from my self-destructive rants by taking me shopping, or by finding my trademark self-deprecation so funny that i, in turn, at least feel good about my budding sense of humor.
and while she was pretty apologetic in giving me athletic socks and fudge for my birthday this year, i actually thought that this was a wonderful constellation of gifts and was yet again thankful to have such a considerate blogmate... especially when there was a second round of birthday present a few weeks later involving a reversible strawberry purse.
it was thus with great delight that i presented her with her birthday gifts this afternoon. on the surface it was standard stuff: a book and a CD. for the record i think that book + CD is not only a good present, but kind of a classy one, and i have used the synergistic power of these items to impress a few (now ex-) boyfriends over the years. but as you also know, thoughtful and classy aren't really my strong suits... instead, my blogmate is now the proud owner of an out-of-print (but available on amazon) sociology book (somebody's dissertation) that showcases the goings on at our very own valois (that's "vuh loise") "see your food" cafeteria on 53rd street AND "italian dance anthems + euro hits," which i had unwrapped, listened to, and burned before i gave it to her.

among other things, i think we might be getting to the bottom of our collective musical bankruptcy.