Sarah Hatter is my friend.

She’s my good friend, in fact, a girl who I can laugh with over the silliest things which reminds me how fun and true girl friends are and how much we need them in our lives.

Since she’s my friend, we discuss just about everything; I know that she’s spending time with this darling guy who she (amazingly enough) met on the street corner and who thus far hasn’t shown himself to be anything but a gentleman. It’s those types of stories that you read on her website that sound too good to be true, the type of stories that wonder if she’s taking some journalistic liberties to delight her readers. I can say, however, that these types of stories DO actually happen to her, that she DOES meet men on street corners that woo her and take her to fancy dinners and she DOES have the type of life that we all think only happens in fairy tales. Sarah Hatter is real.

And despite the fact that I talk with her every day and she – more than most people, save for possibly My Darling Roommate and a few other close friends – knows what is going on in my life and what I’m thinking but not saying and what I’m saying and not meaning, still has the ability to surprise me and make me sit here, on my couch, nodding, because yet again, she’s hit the nail on the head.

Friends are often at different places in their respective lives…I’ve never really been in the “newly dating” phase when someone else is, which makes you inherently want to hold back, lest you sound that you’re gloating. The last thing you want your friend to think is that you’re doing the proverbial “Nyah, Nyah, Look what I have and you don’t” when all you actually are doing is being excited about your new crush. I’m usually on the flip side of the matter; at this point, most of my friends have a long-term boyfriend or husband or significant other, so trust me when I say I’ve been through it before. We – the significant other-less – are truly happy for our friends when they describe their fledgling relationships with a glow that only a person in the first few stages of “like” can have. And yet, despite that excitement, the devil on our shoulder is whispering “When is it going to be us?” in our ear, making our smile a bit more pained than it should be.

Yet every now and again, the world aligns your relationship excitement with that of your friend’s; they’ve recently met someone that gives them the butterflies, and so have you. And while you’re trying to figure out what to say and what to do and how to act and how not to act, so are they. They’re going through the cautious tightrope walk of propriety themselves, and can empathize with that time you mistakenly mentioned the word “marriage” in front of said crush, mentally berating yourself for your stupidity and wondering if you’ve screwed it up yet again.

So when I read this, I’m glad I’ve got a comrade in crushes to muddle through these “relationship” questions together. Because, you know, Sarah Hatter knows that the last thing I’d ever do is say “Nyah Nyah” when I’m happy.