40x365: #56 ~ Kami

A virtual-turned-real-life friend who most surely was always one of the "cool kids." I still feel that adolescent insecurity about that when I am with you, and yet you are so sweet, it's almost possible to forget.

40x365: #55 ~ Chris M.

You were my best friend for, oh, a year. All I remember is that on that Christmas, you gave me a fuzzy gray pen. Fuzzy pens were all the rage in nineteen-seventy-whatever, so that was very cool. Thanks.

40x365: #54 ~ Paul M.

I can trace my emotional development by reading journal entries about you over a ten-year span. Amazing how, just like a mountain in the rearview mirror, you were so huge when I set out and then quickly, so tiny.

40x365: #53 ~ Paul D.

One date (or was it two?), set in motion with me walking toward the park bench where we were meeting, you clipping your fingernails as you waited. Sadly, that made it impossible for me to continue. So young, so judgmental.

40x365: #52 ~ Colleen

Perhaps one of the nicest people I have ever met. In my world, you are remembered as the roommate of my good friend, but I also see you in a larger way: as a positive energy force to learn from.

40x365: #51 ~ Mel

Husband of a friend of a friend, we were always in the same social situations. In another setting we could have been great friends, but once I heard you refer to me as "what's her name," and that was that.

40x365: #49 ~ Lisa S.

Undercover cop, big city traffic enforcer, hostess extraordinaire with a box-load of accessories for every holiday. You are a multi-faceted and complex. You suffer through much with your flirty, flitty husband, but I know you're both in love.

40x365: #50 ~ Howard

A true San Francisco boy, met your wife in the line for pizza in the Marina, 20-something and carefree. Yours was the first cell phone I ever used and, in my life, that is your major claim to fame.

40x365: #48 ~ Tom S.

A mover and a shaker, you are. All business, a total flirt, known to take your wedding ring off - at least back when I knew you. Yet you married your high school sweetheart and you're still going strong. There's that.

40x365: #47 ~ Maya

You can invite a crowd over on the spur of the moment and still manage to have a crock of homemade soup just waiting on your stove. That's literal and metaphoric, because you are the most welcoming person I know.

40x365: #46 ~ Sen

We were such close friends but then someone pointed out (and I realized) I was doing all the leg work. Sometimes I miss you, but the one sentence responses to my emails don't really encourage my thoughts of reconnecting. Sigh.

40x365: #45 ~ Heddie

Leading my first "new moms group" almost three years ago, you were so out of touch with new moms it wasn't funny. "Maybe email" (my lifeline to civilization) "is just one thing you'll have to give up." Ha! As if.

40x365: #44 ~ Josh G.

So smart. So smug. Your wife, you said, not a blood relative like your mom, so loyalties were spread accordingly. Dating you taught me how to stay detached, stay myself. Crazy, but one of the best relationships in my past.

40x365: #43 ~ Carlos M.

No me gusto la turbulencia. And thus began a crazy affair. I'm still not sure how I would have made it to my hotel without you to translate. I suppose half my bed for the week was a fair trade.

40x365: #42 ~ Jeff B.

Born again, you showed me religion, though I didn't choose yours. Dating you, however briefly, taught me what true happiness is. Friendly's late shifts then a long distance semester, I have never met a person more content in this world.

40x365: #41 ~ Rhonda

Lifesaver, voice of clarity, my therapist. Thank God for you, helping me end a bad relationship and avoid (or truncate) many others. What a luxury to spend 50 minutes with you each week. Except sometimes your couch smelled like B.O.

40x365: #40 ~ Ms. Chickatel

Hard to remember much about my kindergarten teacher 35 years ago. I know you were gentle, I know you were elderly (which probably meant you were 45). I picture you like my grandma, and when I do, I feel happy.

40x365: #39 ~ the other Dan F.

Quiet, mild mannered secretary to the dean. Always so kind, so on top of the scheduling. Who could have known you were secretly a technological guru, destined for a high profile future of magazine writing and sold-out conference talks?

40x365: #38 ~ Dan F.

Dad to my high school best friend. So money conscious, so arrogant. Your superficial comments made me feel so awkward, I can only imagine what it did to your own kids. Actually, I know. And it makes me very sad.

40x365: #37 ~ Betty

David's grandma, still going at 90-something. For someone who says she just wants to die, you have serious staying power. I wish we lived closer so Eli could learn from your Yiddish; I wish we could bring him to visit.