What about your Friends

During the spring of last year my co-worker Dave suggested I go out with his girfriend Cathy on one of my shopping trips to Wrentham, MA. This friendly and very tolerant redhead with wavy auburn hair has hazel eyes that seem to change color. A Rochester area native, she actually reminds me a lot of Drew Barrymore. She works in the Executive offices for Paramount Cards, the oldest greeting card company in the United States, and that may explain her high patience with me. In fact, Cathy’s laid back personality is the counterpoint to my high-strung anxious one. Since we began our quarterly shopping dates, daily chats, and weekly crochet/knit meetings, many a time I have called her for her advice when dealing with awful experiences. She is definitely Charlotte!

I also met the other leg of our group through my former manager Jason. Lisa is a blonde brown-eyed sweetheart from the side of Vermont that borders Canada (that Other country in North America). Her witty wordplay constantly makes me laugh by her sly statements and comebacks. She is also a fellow sports fiend who played my favorite sport during her college years, so we are always laughing at how our rugby stories can seem so similar. During the baseball and football seasons, both of us are glued to the television, watching all the games, yelling at the unfair calls and stupid plays. And, she LUVS Sex and the City!

To explain the Charlie’s Angels bit, last year I had asked Cathy and Lisa if they wanted to join me for some shopping at the Outlets in Wrentham, MA. While we walked along the shopping centers paths, I caught our reflection in some of the store windows and realized that we looked like the re-made movies without the need to kick villain butt. With a smile to myself, I thought it was cool that we had met, and could relate living experiences in Rhode Island.

If only we had started hanging out together before my wedding, I would have changed the date to accompany their schedules so they could be in it!

In November of 2004, I left my old configuration engineering team for a new career in software testing. The application we used was seeking out QA engineers, and I tried out with a shot in the dark. Ironically, I was not seen as the best candidate at the time, but there was no denying that I knew the Tool like the back of my hand, and that I completely understood what other engineers and customers would want. Now, why does this job change mean anything? Because I was the only woman on a testosterone-filled team, a search was made to find another woman who could fit in (not fill my shoes, mind you!) with the boys. And that was when Rasha was hired.

Meeting Rasha can be intimidating. She is a petite Egyptian with gorgeously thick dark hair and a sultry accent. Her family had emigrated here to the United States when she was a little kid and grew up in NYC. If you throw in the fact that she holds an electrical engineering degree and is a certified yoga instructor, well… Let’s just say out of the four of us, she would be Kim Catrall’s character from Sex and the City.