Ava Nobile 
Life is Good

And she took the faith her dreams gave her
 And stepped into the sunrise 
And faced the day 
And said to herself 
Nothing’s impossible!

 And she walked her husband’s stairs
 Into the attic
 And saw the picture of them when they were twenty-two 
And she thought about her best friend 
And how he enriched her life
 And how blessed she was 
And knew that life was good

 And she went down to her kitchen and called her best friend and talked about 
Their first date, under the willow tree
 And how good he was to her when he brought her the roses and took her to that restaurant 
And she remembered the time she got fatally ill, when she went into labor
 And how he held her hand and kept his cool the entire time
 And she couldn’t have done it without him. 

And they talked about the time she got food poisoning 
And how she was in the hospital for two weeks 
And how they never thought she’s make it 
But he came in 
And it seemed like miracle— 
She was out in two days. 

And as they went on like this and she told him how with everything they’ve been through…
 With all the catastrophes…
 That because of him, she realized The Power, The Amazing Power of Life, her very essence. 
He changed her life forever.

Three Girls

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Once upon a time there was a girl named Rose who lived with two other girls in the misty town of Elizabeth, New Jersey. Rose was 25 and her two roommates, Tez and Shelby, were 27 and 30. They were great friends. One evening they went out to a club in Brooklyn —The Horse’s Rath—and met three guys there: Mark, Eric and Kirby. The guys were nice—your typical first dates—but nothing amazing happened. It’s not like sparks went flying or anything. They talked, they got drinks, and they danced. Overall, they just spent the evening having a nice time.

            And then everyone went home. It was about two in the morning. The club closed down, there was nothing much left to do and everyone was tired. Rose and Shelby went straight to their beds. Tez passed out on the couch.

            And it was a comphy couch. It had nice cushy seats with nice cushy pillows. Tez grabbed a pillow and snuggled it deeply. She took two breaths and was out like a light.

            The next morning Tez and Shelby looked like a truck ran over them and Rose didn ’t look so good herself. Their hair was mangled and knotted, and for some reason Tez’ was sticky from the night before.

             Rosy got a bowl of cereal from the kitchen while Tez and Shelby cooked eggs and ham. They all sat down to eat and an hour later were on their way to work.

            Rose was a writer, Shelby an interior decorator and Tez a marketing coordinator. Rose loved her job. Her creations weren ’t always as beautiful and magnificent as she’d like them to be, be she loved to write. It was one of the few things she liked to do most. She went to the office that day with one thing on her mind; starting her new story line. She thought about the topic for weeks and weeks, and still wasn’t completely sure what she wanted to write about, but she knew it had something to do with Sex and the City. Maybe she would write about the creative process used to think up and write the show—you know, the brainstorming. That could be a good story. She would start by going into where Candace Bushnell was in her life when she thought of the concept and go from there. The story could be awesome.

            That night Rose went out with Mike, her newfound love interest of two months. They found each other through the online personals and it had been love at first meeting. They didn ’t connect when they immediately saw each other or anything, but as soon as they met up, they clicked. So it’s been two months and they’ve been in bliss. Every time he would call he could hear the smile on her face. And every time she said his name she could heart the smile in his response. They were definitely in the honeymoon phase of their relationship.

Shelby, the interior decorator, liked her job just as well. She was at Smith and Stanley, working on the Williamson account-- the account of a very wealthy couple that lived in Cumberland Lakes, a town a few miles away from them. The Williamsons were redesigning a few rooms in their house, and Shelby ’s was the firm with the best reputation. It was a good size account with enough challenge to keep her stimulated. She was happy.

            As for Tez, well, she had her own projects to work on too. Shanley and Fisher had her thinking up a new ad for a Pepsi commercial, pitching a new line for a DeBeers ad and promoting a new ring for Zales, all at once. It was a handful, but she knew she could do it. She’d been through worse before.

            So each girl had it good in her professional lives. Their personal lives, on the other hand, well that was a different story.

            Fast-forward six months. Rose ’s boyfriend, Mike, just broke up with her on the day of their anniversary. It was the coldest, meanest, most heartless thing anyone could do. How could anyone be so miserable as to break up with his girlfriend on his or her anniversary of all days? she thought. Well, that’s it. She had it. No more boyfriends for a good long time. Now it was time to start giving herself a little attention. That night she would eat a whole pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream by herself.

            Yep, everything was cool with the girls for a long time. It was a good many years of living together before anything major happened. And then one day a catastrophe broke out.  It was during an economic down turn.  Times weren ’t that great and they had a lot of pressing bills. And there was a lot of conflict and stress all around because of it.

            Like everyone else, the girls got used to having niceties in their lives, and it cost them a great deal. Everywhere they looked they had added expenses. It was extra for the TV, extra for the camera, extra for the movies, extra for this, extra for that, and they just didn ’t have the money to pay for it anymore. There was so much stress that one day they all popped. A fight broke out and went on for hours about who does and doesn’t do what around the house. Finally, the topic got to money and Rose put the extra responsibility on Tez. “You’re always at work,” she pointed a finger and said. “You can afford to put extra money in.” Tez looked shocked. “But I shouldn’t have to!” she screamed. The fighting began again. It went on like that for about an hour after which all three girls left the room and gave each other the cold shoulder. It went on like this for days. They finally began speaking to each other again, upon which Rose said, “Look, my manuscripts have been doing well. Maybe I can ask my publisher for an advance. That should get us through for a little while. She almost felt a sigh of relief from each of them as soon as she said that.

            One night when Rose was out to dinner wit a girlfriend after a long day of writing she noticed a man at a table staring at her from across the room. She didn ’t think anything of it at first, but he just kept looking at her so much. Rose finally excused herself and went up to the bar, upon which is where the man introduced himself. “Excuse me,” he said. “I was just sitting at my table and couldn’t help but notice you. He put his hand out.  “Hi, I ’m Tom,” he said. Rose looked at him and shook it. “Rose,” she replied. Tom pulled up the seat next to her and they started to talk. Back at Rose’s table, her friend Maggie saw what was going on and couldn’t help but smile to herself.

            Months passed and Tom and Rose were still together. Time passed so fast for them it was unbelievable. Any time they didn’t spend at work they spent with each other.  Before they knew it months turned into years and they were celebrating their two-year anniversary. They were out to dinner one night on the twelfth, the exact day they met at the bar, and were having a lovely time. They were talking and laughing and drinking wine —it was all around just a lot of fun. Rose started to giggle from a joke Tom made when he got down on one knee and said, “Rose Noel Cohen, would you be my wife?” “Yes!” She felt exhilarated. It was completely unexpected. Never in a million years… She didn’t know what to do with herself. The only thing that came to her mind was to hug and kiss him and tell him how much she loved him.

            A year later the doors of the church Rose grew up in are wide open and both Rose in her wedding dress and Tom in his tux are running out. The two are ecstatically happy and are on their way to their honeymoon, and then to their new house in Verona. He bought it for her on his Information Technology paycheck, and now she doesn’t have to worry about a thing.