this girl? i love her.

Alright, blogosphere. I need your help. Well, actually, someone I love very much needs your help.

See this girl in the photo above? That beauty is Amanda. I love her. She's my best friend. My hetero-life-partner. My Amanda. (Or Amond' as we like to call her.) And she's very, very ill. And doctors don't know why. She's been in and out of the hospital since late summer. She's been to the ER more times than anyone should ever have to be. And it's just. so. unfair.

Amanda and I met in graduate school five years ago. I was a scared, overwhelmed, and utterly lost soul starting out in a rigorous graduate English program. She was a seasoned veteran, entering her first year of the Ph.D. program, brilliant and absolutely made for the world of academe. It was friendship at first sight.

Fast forward through five years of killer coursework, late night paper-writing-sessions, and comprehensive exams (not to mention asshole boyfriends, sick parents, deaths of beloved professors, serious illnesses {including, but not limited to, cancer}, and all manner of other things in life that make it, well, life), and my sweet Amanda is finally ready to pump out a killer dissertation on All Things Victorian (aka, the 19th-century world of literature). And to do so, she picked up her life here in Pittsburgh and drove cross-country to her homeland of Fresno, California. The plan? To write. A room of one's own, if you will. (I'm looking at you, Virginia Woolf.) To focus on the brilliance that is Amanda. To put aside the distractions of part-time teaching appointments, etc., and to just write. And then, after a good eight or nine months of work, she'd return to Pittsburgh to teach again in the Fall of 2010 and, ultimately, spend another six months or so finishing up what shall henceforth be known as The Ol' Diss'.

But no. Her body has other plans. And we don't. know. why.

Amanda almost died her junior year of high school. Valley Fever consumer her body and left her to spend her third year of high school in a hospital bed, tubes coming from her stomach, fear permanently residing in her mind and heart. Can you imagine?

And now this. Whatever this is. She's undergoing tests, she's spending hours in the hospital now, again. And she's in a lot of pain. And she certainly can't sit down, in a room of her own, and write.

It just. isn't. fair.

And so, my lovely and devoted blogosphere, I ask for your prayers. For my Amanda. While I'm sure you all have hearts heavy with things in your own life that are burdening you, I ask that you please say a prayer for my girl. Or maybe you could leave a comment here for her, to let her know you're thinking of her? Do you have a similar story? Maybe you could just give her some encouragement? I know that the loving thoughts and words of the blogosphere can literally change--and save--people's lives. And right now, my sweet Amanda--my best friend--needs your help.

with loving thanks from Pittsburgh,
Laura