It turned out the Maria and I got along really well. She actually reminded me of Sandy in some ways. They were both warm and good listeners.
They were also both kinda cheesy. When Sandy and I first became friends I would kind of pretend some of her jokes were funny, even when I first had my son she was always like, "I can't wait to see your penis," but she kept saying it after she met him and she would still laugh.
Maria has a similar sense of humor, but what I learned with Sandy, to tease her but nicely, worked well with Maria too.