(Jean, Marcy and me at Marcy's engagement party. Yes, look at our big hair, shoulders and earrings. We were fashion goddesses.)

I am inspired by Natalie B's post "I Love You and I'm Shouting It From the Rooftops" about her best friends, so I want to give a shoutout to my "better than sisters" Marcy and Jean.

I met Jean at work. She was our boss's assistant. We loathed him, but all pretended to be friends. When he realized Jean and I were becoming friendly, he wanted to be included, so Jean and I  used to meet secretly in the bathroom so we could hang without him. Jean was already friends with Marcy, they'd been college roommates. We all started going out after work for drinks and trolling for men - single girls on the prowl long before sex and the city. Jean is quiet and sharp and Marcy is loud and bubbly. I am a mix, so the three of us make a good team.

I really got to know Marcy one weekend when I invited Jean to come out to the beach with me. (I had a summer share in the Hamptons.) She couldn't make it, but Marcy could, so I figured why not, maybe we'll get along? We met in Penn Station and hopped on the train. She immediately opened a bottle of vodka and I knew my weekend had begun. Its a big blur actually. I know we went dancing. I know we went to the beach. I know we went skinnydipping in the midde of the night. And I know that afterwards Marcy and I were tight, and the three of us started doing everything together.

Soon they got an apartment together on the upper west side. Unusually, they shared the bedroom (in separate beds people, get your minds out of the gutter) and used the living room as a living room. It was a great location in a nice doorman building, and somehow I was able to get my own studio apartment there. It was really the best of two worlds. My best friends lived downstairs, but I could go home to my own place and have some privacy.

We were all together when Marcy met her husband. We walked into our own summer share at the beach to find a guy sleeping on the couch. We played quarters with him, took him out dancing, and well... Marcy is a man magnet. Jean and I were bridesmaids - see Bianca wearing the dress - at her wedding. No maid of honor, because how could she choose between us?

I snuck into the hospital after Marcy's daughter was born, pretending to be her sister. And really, I am better than a sister, because I never borrow her clothes or compete for attention.

Jean and I have also had our misadventures. Once, spending the night at her parent's home, I woke up, walked across the hall to the bathroom, and when I came back the bed was already made. Her mom naturally treated me like a member of the family, and I guess thats what happens when you are so close to people.

We have all been there for reach other, celebrating the good and dealing with the bad. Jean has listened to me vent about my job, my grandmother, my father. She has taken me away for a weekend and she has come to my place for the weekend. When I got into grad school - the happiest moment ever - the three of us had a joyful night out. When my father passed away, Jean and Marcy drove me to the funeral, and then instead of going to the burial they went back to the house and prepped for the shiva. I will never forget that.

When my mother called me one morning complaining of chest pains, Marcy drove to the hospital and stayed with her until I could get there. My mom said she felt so relieved when she saw Marcy that she started to cry. I will never forget that.

When I first me Jean's adopted daughter Lian, Lian crawled into my arms and said (exactly as she'd been rehearsed) "I love you Dooo-relle," and I got farklempt. I will never forget that.

Mother's Day weekend is Marcy's daughter's Bat Mitzvah, and the three of us will be together again. I can't describe how happy that makes me, how much I love  these women, how much their friendship has enriched my life. I saw a pbs special a few years ago that talked about women and their close friends, and how its really only with our closest friends that we are our true selves. I am my true self with Marcy and Jean. I know we love each other no matter what. There's not much better than that.