friends indeed

I want to pay homage to my friends here. Just a few words about each of them, maybe an image or two. They're the best thing I'll take away from Los Angeles, and they've made my life wonderful and colorful and full.

A bit more on Carol: We met as grad students at Columbia; now our friendship has gone coast to coast. Carol is sweet, when she wants to be, and has a spicy Jamaican temper, which thankfully I've only been on the receiving end of once or twice. She's the hardest working person I know. (Remember the "Hey Mon" skit on "In Living Color"? That's Carol.) If she says she'll be someplace, she will. Early. She's generous, even passing along info on writing contests that she's planning to enter so that I can enter too. She loves to try new things, and dreams of being a surfer someday. She's never once judged me, and has provided a safe place for me to fall when I've needed one. Carol is that friend who will march over to your place if your voice doesn't sound right on the phone, ask what the hell you're doing with the blinds drawn on a sunny day, pick up after you, and pick you up too.