Radio Free Jen

Most of you already know that I am friends with the extraordinary Jen Lemen. Jen is cut from the same template as the little girl who picked me out the first day of preschool to be my friend, guardian and cheerleader. I had barely arrived on the blogging playground when she linked her arm through mine and whispered that we would be best friends. She has an incredibly generous spirit and a heart that broadcasts "I believe in you" on all channels, all the time.

I could give you tons of examples of how Jen is tuned to a different frequency than most. Like when we were at the rooftop cocktail party at the Blogher conference in Chicago this summer. I'm standing around, stuffing my face with canapes, wondering how to meet Rebecca Woolf and if I should guilt my pregnant roommate Alana into giving me her drink ticket, when I notice that Jen already knows the wait staff by name, and country of origin. Or going to another party and finding out later that week that while I was at the wine table, debating white or red, Jen was doing this.

But I like this one the best, from a Saturday morning telephone call, several weeks ago:

Me: Hi! What are you doing?

Jen (breathlessly): I'm driving across town to help a Rwandan genocide survivor escape a domestic slavery situation.

Me: Oh. Well. I'm folding laundry.

I have a feeling if you asked Jen's husband Dave, he'd verify that this is a pretty typical Saturday morning exchange in his household.

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There's a great picture of Jen, me, and another of my favorite playground friends on Jen's blog this week. (The talent she refers to in the caption would be my talent for scoring comp drink tickets. Which explains why I don't actually remember this photo being taken.)