When I visited Portland, Wendy, my best friend and soul sister, met me at the train station. I was thrilled to see her! She is the most upbeat, determined and resourceful person that I’ve ever known.

She’s been a public speaker under the name "Infectious Enthusiasm," done community outreach and marketing for a hospice, the Salvation Army, Girl Scouts, Portland Community College, and other civic and non-profit groups.

I’m convinced that she knows almost every cool woman in Portland and some in Seattle. When I first moved to Seattle, I took her to the Microsoft company picnic and she immediately spotted someone that she knew!

While I was a wallflower in high school, she was the homecoming queen. She’s blond and fair skinned with smile that lights up the room. She’ll walk up to anyone and start a conversation and vice-versa. As the maid-of-honor at my wedding, she was equally the bride, radiant, greeting guests and making them feel welcome.

Here she is with my mother at Marine Polis Sushiland in Tualatin (before I figured out how to remove the black-and-white feature from the camera I was using). She bravely ate the plates of raw and somewhat cooked fish that I plucked from the conveyor belt. 

She is more than a friend. She is my sister for ever and ever!!!!