Friends are the family we choose. They are our kindred spirits, met by chance or good fortune and bound to us by a commonality of interests. Friends are woven through the fabric of our lives as the ever-evolving family of our choice. They enliven our days, tolerate our moods, add spice and humor, brighten the dark times, and generally bring out the best in us. Good friends can know us better than our families do, and, if you are lucky, perhaps you can also call someone in your family a good friend. There is an old proverb which states: "No man is whole of himself. His friends are the rest of him." I believe that sentiment and wish to share with you my friends, loved ones, and acquaintances who are the rest of me.

The Real World...Friends & Loved Ones

Gary, Loved One Lake George, NY Keisha, Baby Girl Home
Misty, Baby Car Home	Sasha, Best Sister New Orleans, LA	Billy, Best Friend Work

Our Krewe, Ct. of 2 Sisters Debra, Sorcha, Sasha, Hillary, Sapphire, Ginger, Carl	Ginger & Carl ARVLFC Gathering	Our Krewe, Jackson Sq. Ginger, Hillary, Sasha, Sorcha, Debra, Carl, Sapphire (in front)
Shapeshifter & Sapphire ARVLFC Gathering	Shapeshifter & Charlotte ARVLFC Gathering	Vampire Krewe Cyrus as Armand, Rane as Louis Shapeshifter as Lestat, Claudia
Sapphire & Karen Agnes de Noir	Sapphire & Jeff Dark Cotillion	Sasha & Sapphire Our Balcony
Janis Joplin, Frank Zappa, & Cyrus	Rane & Claudia, Faeries Dark Cotillion	Les, Kenny, & Vitas R&B Blues

Krewe at Jackson Square

Beverly & Tony

Emily & Morrigan

Susan & Morrigan ABAR Wedding

Krewe at Lafayette Cemetery #1

Sasha & Savannah

Supporting Cast

While I have shown you some of my wonderful acquaintances and some of my most favorite people (and my most favorite puppy and car), there are so many others to celebrate and cherish in my life. I have many real life friends who are as close as a phone call or a short drive. They are mostly my old friends who know the forever me and still love me despite my faults (yeah, yeah, I have a few of those but not many...really, I think *grin*). And, I have many Internet friends who are as close as an e-mail or chat room. Many of us are all still in the 'getting to know each other' delight and I do hope my Kiss of Darkness has not shocked them too much. Knowing them, I sincerely doubt it *grin*!! So, here are the complete lyrics to the song which inspired this name of this page. I hope you enjoy them!!

 

Music by Elton John Lyrics by Bernie Taupin Available on the soundtrack Friends

 

I hope the day will be a lighter highway

For friends are found on every road

Can you ever think of any better way

For the lost and weary travellers to go

Making friends for the world to see

Let the people know you got what you need

With a friend at hand you will see the light

If your friends are there then everything's all right

It seems to me a crime that we should age

These fragile times should never slip us by

A time you never can or shall erase

As friends together watch their childhood fly

Making friends for the world to see

Let the people know you got what you need

With a friend at hand you will see the light

If your friends are there then everything's all right

Words of Friendship Wisdom:

Aristotle: "Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow-ripening fruit."

Rebecca West: "There was a definite process by which one made people into friends, and it involved talking to them and listening to them for hours at a time over long periods of time."

William Butler Yeats: "Think where man's glory most begins and ends, And say my glory was I had such friends."

Hilaire Belloc: "There's nothing worth the wear of winning, But laughter and the love of friends."

Christi Mary Warner: "A friend is one who knows all about you and likes you anyway."

Friedrich Nietzsche: "A friend should be a master at guessing and keeping still."

Barbara Holland: "Sometimes, with luck, we find the kind of true friend, male or female, that appears only two or three times in a lucky lifetime, one that will winter us and summer us, grieve, rejoice, and travel with us."

Billie Holiday: "If I don't have friends, then I ain't got nothin'."

Henry Ford: "My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me."

William Shakespeare: "To me, my friend, you can never be old, For as you were when first your eyes I eyed, Such seems your beauty still."

Ben Sira: "A faithful friend is a strong protection; A man who has found one has found a treasure. A faithful friend is beyond price, And his value cannot be weighed."

Pietro Aretino: "I keep my friends as misers do their treasure, because, of all the things granted us by wisdom, none is greater or better than friendship."

David Tyson Gentry: "True friendship comes when silence between two people is comfortable."

Sallust: "To like and dislike the same things, this is what makes a solid friendship."

And, two of my favorites are:

Mark Twain: "I don't like to commit myself about heaven and hell---you see, I have friends in both places."

Shalom Aleichem: "Rather the bite of a friend than the kiss of an enemy."