I eat the small chips...

...in the basket at mexican restaurants. This drives my daughter crazy. She, of course, loves and eats the big unbroken pieces from the top after she dips them in the hot sauce or chili con queso. But I prefer the smaller ones in the bottom of the basket. I can use them to dip into the hot sauce (even though I really am not a fan of spicy sauces or dips) or guacamole (that I love so much.) These little chips taste the same as the big ones, they're just not always accessible, convenient, and are sometimes flawed. But they taste the same as those big perfect ones on top. I think they're better though because you don't have to break them to eat them and are the perfect size for me.

I thought about this whole chip thing as I waited for my friend at lunch last week. I've had a friend for over twenty years who lives about thirty minutes away. We don't really have a whole lot in common. She was the girlfriend of my hubby's coworker at one time. We remained friends with her even after the coworker parted ways. I think she and I have a bond due to time...even though we live semi-close, we eventually only saw each other about once a year for a decade or so. In the last two to three years, we started meeting more often at a mexican restaurant near where she works for lunch and exchanging information about our lives and finding out what's new with each other.

It's nice to know someone so long that you immediately know certain things like if they're happy or sad or whether they've lost or gained weight. It's also great having an impartial person to be able to vent to about your family, brag about great things happening, or to just sit and talk with (when there is nothing going on.) She's gone through a couple husbands, I've raised a couple girls, we care about our those people close to us...we've become a special support group for two who meet a few times a year.

My friend is like one of the little chips.