Why I'm grateful to have Toots in my life:

1. He's always got my back.
I'm always highly susceptible to attacks for some reason, whether it's from family, friends, or strangers. You can always rely on Toots and his acerbity during these times. He'll rip through these people like it ain't no thang, but...

2. He won't fight my battles for me.
He'll defend me to no avail, but won't shelter me. He understands that I need to learn to work through my issues and that when you take away people's problems, you weaken their ability to overcome them.

3. He pushes me out of my comfort zone.
Carmen loves stability. When I was younger, we jumped from country to country, state to state, city to city and being all over the place instilled this need in me to want to plant down some roots and settle. Settle in a physical place and an emotional place. And so I have a tendency to stay in this "place" even if it's not good for me because I fear making dramatic changes. Toots recognizes this and will tell me things that I don't necessarily want to hear, but need to hear. He doesn't get too pushy about it, and even if I don't follow his direction he...

5. Doesn't give up on me.
I've known him for eleven years. I've been through a million and one ups and downs, nervous breakdowns, life drama and he continues to be consistently Toots. I've got three people in my life who I never have to worry about giving up on me (and I do a lot of stupid things that would warrant them to give up on me): Toots, Francy, and my brother. They're my best friends in the whole wide world.

6. He's got great taste in books.
Sometimes. He exposed me to certain books that have become the heart of my library, but this reputation will always be tainted by his suggestion to read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.

7. His jokes are so unfunny, that they're funny.
In the eleven years I've known him, he's told me one funny joke. Out of THOUSANDS. THOUSANDS. The minute he says, "I've got a joke for you" I know that it's more likely that I roll my eyes than laugh. But it's nice to hear him laugh at his own jokes, which then makes it funny.

This list could go on and on, but to cut it short and spare him the emotional porn he's not fond of, let's just say that he's out of this world terrific and you'll never meet someone else like him.