Before I get much deeper into the fun stuff – the “what happened in Europe that made me rethink my life” stuff, I need to throw in a little bit of backstory.

I know, I know, I said I wasn’t going to write about the distant past anymore (and I’m not).  But remember – I also said that I was going to stay in Germany for three months… and unless you’re just independently wealthy somehow (and I am not), or someone who has no ties to… well… anything (which, again, does not apply to me), then setting that goal, and then meeting it, takes an inordinate amount of preparation.

None of that would have been possible, though, without my friends – the ones who are part of, what I affectionately call my Inner Circle.  These are the people who have my back (and whose backs I also have) through thick and thin and who know the backstories to the backstories to the backstories to everything I’ve ever written in here (and everything I haven’t). They are like family.  Closer, really, since I feel like I can be my authentic self around them. I can cry in front of them (and I have)… and if you know me at all, you know what a big deal that is. 

Anyway – I can’t tell this story without them… which means you need to know who they are too.  So let me introduce them to you here in order of life appearance.

First, meet Anastasia – I’ve known her since we were about six, and our adventures span everything from first grade to driving school to our first jobs (at the same summer camp) to late night shenanigans in Louisville, Kentucky.  While we don’t see each other anymore as often as we’d like, we make time to text whenever we can and – when I’m back in Kentucky to visit – we usually end up getting together for lunch or something and it’s like no time has passed. 

Next there’s Cole.  We met at University, freshman year, and regularly teamed up together to troll weird (and probably perverted) men in HTML chat rooms and talked about everything from odd people we knew, to the paranormal, to the “cheat code” for getting an A on Dr. Kebric’s Roman History essays.  I don’t know how else to describe him except to say he’s the guy version of me. And before you ask… (because everyone does)… no… there has never been anything romantic between us.  He’s like my brother… seriously… it would be weird.  Anyway, he’s still my bestie, my emergency contact, and we spend hours, weekly, chatting on the phone about, well, everything. And after twenty-five years of practice, we’ve gotten so good at analyzing things and profiling people that his wife thinks I should move to North Carolina (where they live) so we can start up a PI Firm.

And that brings me to Emily, Cole’s wife.  They’ve been together since before University, and though she went to a different school, I am told that she knew me by reputation because my roommate’s twin sister (who also went to her school) was constantly talking about everything she perceived that I was doing wrong with my life. I just knew her as Cole’s girlfriend – until we finally met in person, and I quickly learned that she’s as cool as he is.  If Cole is my brother, she’s my sister-in-law, and like seriously, I hit the jackpot here.  She’s totally brilliant, super funny, and her passion for the people and the causes she cares is unrivaled.  Seriously, I wish I could be that dedicated.   Anyway, they’ve been married forever, she and I also text frequently, and if I haven’t told her everything, Cole definitely has (which is absolutely fine with me). 

Next is Nicole, who I met in Ohio in 2008 when I was spending a lot of time there post-divorce.  We met at a party, which spun into more parties (many of them involving corsets and fishnets), as well as LAN World of Warcraft parties – where four out of five members of our team were blood elves.  That annoyed our guild leader who chose to play as an Orc. He thought it was ridiculous.  We didn’t care… often letting our characters drink themselves into oblivion before we ran a dungeon (which made the whole instance spin)… and then we laughed madly when they’d end up running in an opposite direction.  (I promise, we’re not actually that bad of players.)  She’s created nicknames for some of the Project TMI characters, and is a fantastic sidekick, an amazing cook, and seriously, I have yet to say anything that completely shocked her – which is insanely impressive. 

She is married to Rob.  Who is also insanely (and thankfully) hard to shock.  Rob’s a very “all in” kinda guy… I don’t think I’ve ever known him to half-ass anything – not his job, his photography, his marriage, his friendships, their animals (and seriously, they have a menagerie at their house), or even his side projects (which sometimes include making crazy oversized original stuffed toys for their kid).  He’s also the guy you want on a road trip – as I found out when he helped me move halfway across the country a few years ago. Truly, it’s really because of him that I got to Columbia in one piece – with all my stuff (and my cats) and that my townhouse looked anywhere as close to as settled as it did.  

And finally there’s Renee – who I’ve only really known for a few months, but you know how sometimes you meet someone and it’s like you’ve known them for a million years?  That’s this chick.  We’ve never actually met in person (yet)… but when we get on the phone together, three hours feels like thirty minutes.  Honestly SHE could write Project TMI if she wanted to… her stories are as crazy as mine, and yet we’ve never really tried to out-crazy each other.  We usually just end up laughing at the ridiculousness of it.  Anyway, she was as excited as I was about my trip, and she kept me company as I was meandering alone through the streets of London in March and April (yes, London… I told you… this trip was an adventure).  She’s also the one that made me realize that that time in London didn’t need to be a passing fancy, if I didn’t want it to be.

Oh … and I guess Botboy should also get a mention here, since he made a rather surprising reappearance – if only as someone who also kept me company while I wandered through London on my own.

So… I guess that’s everyone.  I didn’t do them all justice… I mean how do you do that in a paragraph per person when you’re trying to introduce someone to a live audience without really telling anyone who they are – or revealing much about them – in the first place?  It’s kinda precursory, I’ll admit that  , but on the other hand – as this story progresses – hopefully you’ll get to know them a little better too.

I’ll finally just sum it all up to say that this is the crew I’m talking about, when I tell my partners “My friends were there before you, and they’ll be there to help me clean up the mess when you leave,”

And I don’t wanna do life without any of them.