Tales From the Kitchen Table

Val has a new post up at Wife Behind the Fire for her Kitchen Table discussions regarding friendships with local fire wives.  I find it ironic that I am writing for this feature so much, seeing as I don't even have a Kitchen Table...and island, yes.  A dining room table in a bedroom used for feeding the muppets, but no true kitchen table.  Okay, enough rambling...

Local firewives...

I am friends with a few from our department, we've gotten together once or twice.  We talk on Facebook.  But beyond that, it is always, "we should get together one of these days..."

I live next to a fire family.  He is a Lt. still looking for a fire house, but on the same shift as my hubby.  We have become very close over the last year plus since we moved into our little "Ice Shanty" next door.

There is a lot of co-parenting going, all 7 kids go to the same school. Homework is often done together.  We take the kids and they bring them home, on a regular basis. We are members of the same parish.  We are both (as of last night) now on the Executive Board of the Ladies Auxiliary.  We do dinners with the families and a good portion of our grocery shopping together.  The kids have really become as close to being siblings as possible without blood or paperwork.  It brings all the laughter and drama that comes with larger families in the real world.  I am indeed truly blessed to have found a home next door to such an amazing ffw.

So, leaving my lot line...

I have become friends with a FFW in the next county over.  Our kids play at the park together and we do lunch.  We have attended a screening of the Stars and Stripes Documentary at their church. And, like many of my ffw friendships, we met through social media. She and her beautiful family have become an amazing part of our lives.  I am so grateful that Val really got the ball rolling with getting social media into the picture for Fire Wives!

And then I have to go south of the border...to my scary doppelganger.  She is married to a CFD Med who crossed over.  We look like we could be related and even scarier - we have VERY similar personalities.  When I need to speak my mind - in a very not so politically correct manner, I can and she gets it.  She is a blogger as well, which is where we first started rubbing elbows.  She is a quick Metra ride away and probably one of the few people that could tolerate my shenanigans, trapped in a car with me for 14 hours.  I do enjoy laughing at her antics as she begins homeschooling her muppets, knowing that even with the better part of two decades being spent in education, my own children would never survive such an experiment.  I have to give her props!  

That is really about it for locally developed friendships among firewives.  I am part of the ladies auxiliary, but I would not say that I have really bonded with anyone through that once a month gathering.  Maybe that will change, maybe it won't who knows.

I am grateful to have friends so close, but also to have some where I can talk about local drama without being too concerned that someone is friends with someone else and now there are hurt feelings.  With girls removed from the situation, I can voice my opinions and have sounding boards, without additional drama.  If I would not have had my cyber friends, I have no clue where I might be.  This world o' fire made no sense to me...at all.

Now, I can't imagine it any other way.

Pull up a chair and tell me about your fire wife gal pals.  Are they next door like mind or a world away like our lovely Laverne in the land down under?  Feel free to share them here or over at Wife Behind the Fire.  I am certain Val wold love to hear from you.