Two tears in a bucket...

...motherfuck it.

Yesterday was the day from hell. I was overdue.

I can't talk about specifics, but I'll just say I had an awful experience which brought back so many painful memories of the clusterfuck of my mother's death, funeral and burial and its aftermath.

I called Deb and told her I needed to see her. Since it was close to lunch time, she said she'd take 30 minutes. She works so hard and the clinic is so busy that she rarely leaves for lunch. She just bolts down her food. Her table manners are atrocious. When I tell her to slow down (like I did at Thanksgiving dinner), she tells me she has to eat in two minutes at work and does it without thinking.

We headed to Chick-Fil-A and she had nuggets (The Coupon Queen got them free). My stomach was in knots so I just had a big Coke Zero (which I had to pour out a few minutes later because I put it in my car's cupholder which contained push pins and they punched holes in the bottom of the cup). Thank god I'm not a stress eater or I'd be big as a barn.

Deb listened to my saga, and joined in my outrage. It really helped me. She and I had made it through the craziness together. I couldn't have survived without her.

When I dropped her at her office, she came out with one of her patented movie quotes: "It's like my mom always said: "Two tears in a bucket, motherfuck it.""

I laughed so hard and made her say it over and over until I caught my breath and asked her where she'd come up with that one. She told me it was The Lady Chablis from Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. She is an encyclopedia of delicious nuggets of movie quotes. She can quote them beautifully, perfectly capturing the essence of the character. She is gifted this way. Like me, she can glean the humor from the horror. And we both relish irreverence. We've laughed and cried together so many times in the last seven months.

Her bosses and co-workers are crazy about her for reasons like this: She has this photo framed and prominently displayed in her office. It's Al Pacino in Scarface. Whenever anyone comments on it, she channels his character and says, "Say hello to my little friend."

Gotta love that girl.