It's Nice to Know You, Jessica!

So, I am intent on honoring my "Nice-ies", those people who have been kind to me, when they could have just as easily...not. The first person that jumps out at me is my friend Jessica. Sure, she dropped my son on his head, but only because she was watching him while I ran out to get tacos. Ergo, she dropped him on his head because she was being nice.

But really, head trauma aside, Jessica is nice. We first met at Pine Castle under apparently difficult circumstances. As she tells it, every chance she gets, I traumatized her by "yelling at her" in the hallway when her miscreant 2nd graders were being too loud. (The first reason we know this is a lie is because I never yell.) Even though she was horrified by my alleged yelling, her response was nice. The next time she saw me in the hall, (the first time I even saw her since I never spoke, or yelled, at her before) was to apologize for if her kids had disrupted my class the last time they went down the hallway. How sweet is that? I didn't have a clue what she was talking about, but I appreciated her for being so thoughtful.

And thoughtful is what she has gone on being even all these years later. Jessica is the only reason my kids have ever been to Disney. She gets a certain number of passes each year as an employee, and she kindly blesses our family, at least once a year, with a trip to the place where dreams come true. But, that is the big thing she does, and I think the little things are even more amazing.

For years, Jessica has been my human GPS. I call her Tom Tom. I am completely and utterly directionally challenged. Jayme is an atlas trapped in a human brain, but he HATES that I cannot find my way around, so he is not easily persuaded to give me directions. But Jessica is happy to help. Plus, she is user friendly. She tells me to turn left after the weird fork that seems like a dead end. None of that head North, and then bear slightly north-east nonsense. She has taken my calls when she was out with friends, having dinner, home in Sarasota with her family for Mother's Day...you name it. And she never made me feel stupid for needing her directions to go to the same place, repeatedly. My new phone has GPS, so I don't need her TomTom skills as much, but sometimes I just turn it off and call for old times sake. :)

She brings me lunch at school at least every few weeks. This may sound small, but it is huge! You see, I have a twenty minute lunch break, but she drives out of her way to pick up food, pays for it even though I seldom have cash and end up owing her for next time, braves the school chaos on the way to my room, and has a lightning fast lunch with me, just to make my day better. And just last week, she stopped by out of the blue with a diet coke, simply saying that she figured I had a staff meeting since it was Wednesday, and maybe this would help me make it through. It turned out she was right. The staff meeting that day was a marathon, and I drank every last drop and chewed the ice as I fought to the finish.

Jessica comes over and spends time just hanging out at our house, which I appreciate like crazy since I am often not able to leave after the kids are in bed. We watch TV, Psych, Lingo, whatevs, and just chat. My kids love her too, and she is so nice to them. She has played hours of Candy Land, hide under the bed, and drop the baby (sorry, had to throw that one in there again) and always with a smile. Trust me, sometimes the smiling is the hardest part. A couple of weeks ago, she even came to watch Taryn play soccer on Saturday morning. Taryn was so excited to have Miss Jessica there!

Even when we just have family birthday parties, we invite Jessica, and she comes! She takes pictures, or helps me serve the cake, and plays with Trevor because he is addicted to her. :) When she went to Disney Land in California, she sent them a postcard! They were so excited for A) mail, and B) mail with mickey and his pals on it! It was just so thoughtful. She also got me a solar powered key chain that flashes "Jen", no denying that is the gift that keeps on giving!

Probably the nicest thing that Jessica ever did for me was to join Weight Watchers with me. I had been doing it alone for a couple months, with limited success, and asked her to join me. She said yes, and it has made all the difference. :) Thirty five pounds later for me, and twenty five for her, we are still going strong. I would never have been able to do it alone, and I am so grateful that I have her by my side at the meetings to sit with. We laugh a lot-mostly at ourselves, and we set goals together. They are healthy goals, like when we both lose five more pounds we can eat all the chips and queso we can stomach. See? She's good for me.

Thanks for being so nice Jessica! Thanks for always making me smile, and for helping me endure the days when I am doing a google search for the tallest building in Orlando just in case jumping becomes my best option. ;) I am so glad that you gave me a second chance after you imagined that I allegedly made a negative first impression. :) We have a lot of fun, but I also trust you with my struggles and let you see the places where my heart sometimes hurts, and that means the world.

Can't wait to eat Mickey shaped waffles with you next week...as your niceness continues.