Clarissa

So today is Clarissa's birthday. Happy Birthday Clarissa! We met back when I worked at a radio network in the DC area. She was a biggity-wig news anchor. I was an "editor" and I use that term loosely (I erased tapes on a big tape eraser machine, and did some splicing). She was like the older, wiser sister I never had. Sorry Kelli, you aren't much older and you weren't so wise back then!

Clarissa didn't care I wasn't a biggity-wig. We got on fabulously. Crab cake lunches at the Quarter Deck in Rosyln! Woo-hoo! Matinees at The Arlington Cinema and Draft House. Bring it!

I'd do something crazy, (being 22 & all) like send an inter office email to the whole department, calling the men big fat bald chauvinists(looking back, in their defense, not all of them were bald); she'd somehow smooth it over. She really looked out for me, and rooted for me. She's just that kind of friend.

She moved to Texas, and then to NYC to do her biggity-wig stuff, and you all know what happened to me, nursing school, Todd, Riley, Seth.

Clarissa is back in the DC area now, and she has been undergoing treatment for cancer, and she has been one of the bravest people I have ever known (like you Kelli), and she just somehow keeps so positive. It is amazing.

And with all she's going through, she's still rooting for me, only now she's rooting for us, rooting for Riley, and Todd and Seth.

And it's just so nice to have a friend who roots for you like that.

I'm rooting for you too Clarissa. Big time.

Happy Birthday!

Love.