Real Friends Keeping it Real

Sometimes all you need is a real friend to laugh in your face and slap some sense into you. And I’ve got plenty, but there’s always the one you turn to because you call her about everything. You call her when you can’t stop laughing at the stupid things you’ve done that day, or she’s calling you because she’s trying to order her meal at the drive thru and realizes she’s been talking to the pole five feet behind the mic and can’t understand why they won’t answer her!

Andre is that person for me. Most of you know her from my Timeless Series, she’s written as the sassy and in your face friends who will slap you with the truth and then turn around and shove you off a cliff to get you to do the right thing. She’s the stand by your side forever friend that won’t ever give up on you, and then laugh in your face because you need it. She’s also real, and that personality she has in the books–that’s her, one hundred percent through and through.

Andre and I have been friends for nearly 20 years, and though we may not talk every day, we never miss a beat when we do our catch up call.

So I called her today because I was a little peeved about what happened yesterday…a policeman shows up at my house  because a neighbor, who I’ve lived across the street from for over 20 years, filed a complaint against me because his cats are missing.

I know you’re asking how this has to do with me, so I’ll tell you, but first let me state that I am NOT a cat hater. I like cats. I have owned cats in the past…I just don’t appreciate the neighbor who’s feeding every stray cat in a 5-mile radius and they’re using my yard as a litter box.

I will also state that for the last two years I have done every known thing via the internet, local stores and word-of-mouth suggestion to prevent the cats from revisiting and all failed. I even ripped out one of my flower beds and put rocks in…apparently they like rocks.

So this summer, when things were getting pretty bad as in the way of cat urine smells by my office window, I may or may not have walked across the street to the neighbor’s house and asked his mother (she’s over there constantly because he’d divorced and helps out) to please stop feeding all the stray cats because they’re making a mess of my yard. I also may have said that if she couldn’t help me out that I may be forced to take said cats to the humane society if they were found on my property. And via the police officer yesterday, it’s well with my rights to do so.

You know what Andre’s reaction was? She laughed in my face! Well not literally because we were on the phone, but you get the idea. Here I was peeved and she was laughing! Her comment was something close to this, “We’ll karma sure bit you in the butt!”

And she was right…karma had bit me in the butt. I opened my mouth to the neighbors mom because I was frustrated, and I got it back ten-fold by having a complaint lodged against me. Is it really a big deal? No, after I said it in the back of my mind I knew this was going to come back in my face someday. It just took Andre’s laugh and comment to bring it all into perspective for me.

So the lessons learned from this? Andre will always be there to keep it real for me, and watch what you say in frustration, because there is a good change it may bring karma back upon you. Lesson number three? Andre will alway remind me of this with texts that now say meow. Love her!