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when I was out of line. She would also set others straight when they messed with me.
    One time she went to bat for me before I learned to stick up for myself. I had purchased a ball gown, but had gained weight as it got closer to the ball. I took it to the cleaners to have it altered, but when I picked it up the dress didn’t fit.
    I could barely zip it up and when I did, I couldn’t breathe.
    The seamstress refused to fix it. In broken English, she insisted, “It looks good! Sexy time!”
    Still young, I hadn’t learned how to be assertive, so I left without getting the dress fixed.
    When I got home, I started crying to Natalie. I was upset I had wasted money getting the dress fixed and now I was going to have to buy another one.
    Natalie went nuts. She got me into the car and drove us back to the dry cleaners. Within a few minutes Natalie had gotten a full refund and had made the seamstress alter the dress again.
    She gave me strength when I didn’t have any.
    Kat, on the other hand, is taller than Natalie and has the greenest eyes I had ever seen. She and I could talk so much our tongues had to stop before our brains would.
    We are both very outspoken, but in completely different ways. I’m more prone to yelling out something vulgar, while she is likely to yell at me for saying it.
    She would claim that her delicate ears could not handle hearing such words. However, a glass of wine later and she could match me tit for tat with “F” bombs.
    I was, on the other hand, a lightweight when it came to drinking. One drink and it was lights out for me. I was a social drinker and smoker.
    Kat is what I would call an “I’ll have one of yours” drinker and smoker.
    I sensed she was struggling with her Catholic guilt and trying to find herself.
    I tend to attract people who are afraid to express themselves. They can sin vicariously through me. In fact, I tease my husband, who is Catholic, about my Methodist beliefs.
    We don’t believe in purgatory, so I tell him that he better die first because he will need a head start since he’ll be in purgatory for years before I die.
    I, on the other hand, will go straight to heaven.
    You could say that Kat and I are opinionated, but that would be an understatement. Natalie would sit back and shake her head whenever the two of us got going on political, moral, or Biblical topics. We thought we knew everything.
    Kat had gone straight from her parent’s Catholic upbringing to a Jesuit college, and then into marriage.
    I had attended Christian schools for twelve years and knew a little bit about that type of education as well as complete immersion into a religion.
    Although Kat had fewer “real life” experiences than Natalie or me, she often gave me the best advice.
    I could really get worked up over issues, but Kat would calmly and rationally see the best way to handle a situation.
    The three of us connected completely after that first Bunco game. We balanced each other out. I had finally made connections and found good friends.
    Mary had been right after all. Bunco did open up doors to find good friends.
    BEENIE WEENIE
    I was still looking for my best friend—that one special girlfriend. The one that I could say anything to and wouldn’t be judged by her. I found her in Beenie.
    Jon tried to introduce me to as many wives as possible. Luckily, he got a call from some of his TBS buddies who invited us to Del Mar beach. It was there I met Beenie.
    She looks like Betty Paige with black hair, bangs, and long legs. She giggled non-stop and always has a smile on her face. She also smoked and had a cooler filled with Miller Lite.
    I was drawn to her laid back spirit. She was confident and didn’t appear to care what others thought of her.
    Sitting next to her that day on the beach, I realized we had so much in common. We both had poodles and had lived for years in the Carolinas. (Beenie was not raised in the South, so she was not truly “Southern.” There is an expression for people