This week, due to circumstances beyond my control, I must submit a rerun. Actually, I could have controlled the circumstances had I given more effort. However, I did not and the saga morphed into a scatter brained scenario having to do with organizing the advertising for this fine publication. I am now forced to wear a wig due to the massive amounts of hair I've torn from my own head so, I decided to lessen the stress level and simply pull something from the vault. Keep in mind that this ran in 08. Therefore, any reference to “last year” or any of that jazz, has to do with 07. Now that I've thoroughly confused the reading public, I shall leave you with this splendid piece from 07—wait, wasn't that 08? Well, enjoy it in “oh ten” at any rate...

Lisa's 2007

Black Friday gift

Since this is the Thanksgiving issue, I felt that I should, for once in my dreary existence, shock the world and do an actual rave!! Can you believe it?

I am going to impart a very moving and tear jerking story, so prepare to huddle in corners, grip pillows and rock back & forth while simultaneously chanting, “Why oh why?” That might be a slight exaggeration, true to “Lisa form.”

The time has come to acknowledge a very special person in my life and to tell you how our friendship came to be. I will also try to slide in a 'moral of the story' too. (Aren't you the lucky one?)

Last year on Black Friday, (that hideously insane and ridiculous shopping day after the turkey feast), I was published in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette (PG). Although that was a terrific present, it is not the gift of which I speak in my title—stay with me though, please.

The saga began several months prior when I developed a friendship with Reg Henry, world renown columnist and “Land Down Under” native, due to an email that I sent him in praise of his column. This led to a tour of the PG and other fun things—not that fun. Get your mind out of the gutter! Reg is a happily married man, much to the chagrin of my infatuated mother who was smitten immediately with this gent when she met him during the tour!! It's true. Just ask her.

Moving along, through my email relationship with Reg, I was able to slip in a couple of columns after he put me in touch with his people and we all did lunch. (That part is not true but sounds more electrifying than the real story.)

OK, this story isn't really about Reg, although he is a V.I.P. In my life too.

Continuing with this epic tale: I got this email on Black Friday from a person who claimed to have enjoyed my column. I was delighted and discovered at the end of her email, she had typed in her address and it was a Pittsburgh locale. Confusion took over and then I realized that I had been published and no one from the PG had contacted me. Thank goodness for this chick or I would have never known that I had been placed in the pages of that big city publication.

Thus began an all day emailing campaign and a telephone call to this gal since we discovered that we had a lot in common, even though she was 77, at the time, and I was still a spring chicken. It turned out that she too was a writer and a poet. (I'm not a poet—let me clarify that.)

I kid you not when I say that we LITERALLY spent the entire weekend emailing, getting acquainted to the max and exchanging our literary works.

Well, in the course of our emails, she said that she had always wanted to be published in a newspaper. She had never appeared in the pages of a paper but her columns and poems had been placed gently, yet effectively, in a newsletter put out by the Edge of the World Theatre in Seattle. (By the by, theatre is spelled with an 're' and not an 'er' in this case.) She had been the co-owner of this lovely piece of culture and published the newsletter on a regular basis.

So, after looking at her work, I told her that I would be honored to give her my column space for an upcoming issue. The chief approved this whole deal and now, she is my occasional guest columnist and also acts as an emergency editor and P.R. Woman!! Can you dig it?

This woman—oh, I guess I can tell you her name now, Patricia, for crying in a bucket, has become way more than just the above mentioned “job titles.” We have shared so much about our lives over this past year. We also met face to face in February when I spent a long in weekend Pittsburgh alone, away from Perpetual, the kids and Mother and prior to this life long diet!!

The ironic thing is, I became friendly with Mr. Reg Henry by praising his column and was then published in the PG. Patricia and I also got to know each other in the same manner. She wrote, complemented my column and was then published in this humble, yet fabulous paper.

Since last November, we have become devoted friends, strictly through the written word, a few phone calls—she hates the phone, and one visit. (Actually, by press time, we will have “encountered” each other twice, as Mother and I will see her this Thursday before we retrieve “Coin Boy” at the Pittsburgh airport.)

We know of one an other's allies, enemies, family members, likes, dislikes, secrets, histories, and a plethora of other quirks and facts—and yet, she still likes me!

We have argued passionately about politics and in the next breath, or tap on the keyboard, changed the subject in order to offer advice and comfort due to personal “issues.”

We have opened our hearts and minds to each other and developed a unique and beautiful friendship all due to an email pertaining to my column.

We have even toyed with the idea of saving all of our emails and compiling them into book form but decided not to. We both agreed that in doing so, we would have alienated all of our friends, family members, pets, clergy members and other living creatures in our lives!! So, for the sake of saving our hindquarters, that is out the door!

She has given me counsel and helped me through some tough times and I think I have done the same for her.

Bottom line: Patricia has been a force in my life for which I am eternally grateful and truly blessed. She is my 2007 Black Friday gift.

I promised you a moral and I will try now. The moral of this story is: Don't be afraid to write to or chat with another person and tell him/her that you enjoyed, appreciated or liked ___________ (fill in the blank).

This could lead to a wondrous, precious and cherished relationship much like the one I have with my very dear friend, Patricia of Pittsburgh.

OK, you may now exit the corner, drop the pillow, grab a tissue and get on with your life!

P.S. I'm now back and it is 2010 once again. I just thought I'd tell you that Patricia might sound familiar and it's because she is the “mama” to Callie the Cat Columnist. OK, you may now sleep well tonight due to knowing that information.