Special Kinds of Friends

An old friend came to visit me last weekend.  I've known her since I was 12 years old.  We've lived in different zip codes since we were 18.  And yet, she's one of those friends that it doesn't matter how long it's been since the last time we saw/spoke to each other, we always pick up exactly where we left off. 

Do you have these kinds of friends?

I treasure these friends immensely.

This friend that came to visit me is not the only one that I have this special relationship with.  When I was 12 years old, my mother moved me (for the 5th time and for what she said would be the last time) to the town that I would later refer to as my hometown.

We moved in June.  I had left behind friends. Friends that I had met just nine months earlier when we moved to that town.  I spent summer pretty depressed--yes I'm using that word, because at 12, I dramatically thought my life was over.  I cried a lot that summer. I was terrified to have to start all over again. This was my 5th school district and I was only in 7th grade.

If I could only go back to that summer and whisper into my 12-year-old ear, "It's okay. You're about to begin friendships that will last a lifetime. You're about to pass notes to these girls and sign them LYLAS* and you will truly mean that for years and years to come."

When September rolled around, I started all over again. And many of the girls that I befriended that fall, I still count among my closest and most treasured friends.

It's not to say that I haven't met some pretty wonderful people since then.  But, no one can ever take the place of these girls in my heart.  We have a special bond and to be honest, I've talked about it with many of them too. So I know for a fact that I'm not the only one to feel that way--guess that really wouldn't be a very special bond if it was just me.

Sometimes I chalk it up to being together for those formative years. We went through our awkward phases together. We went through our bitchy phases together. We went through our silly phases together. And we all came out alive.

I can't count the amount of hours that we spent just hanging around in someone's basement, innocently laughing until our stomachs hurt. We grew up together. We experimented with who we were together. We experimented with who we were apart. And still, all these years later, we made it.

I know that you're supposed to feel lucky if you can count how many good friends you have on one hand. Somehow I can count how many good friends I've had since I was 12 on that one hand.

Amazing.


*LYLAS: Love You Like A Sister

The Day Not One But Two Friends Called With The Best News

Today was a good day.  I LOVED today!

It started as a regular day. I snoozed probably one too many times. Got to my office as quickly as I could--you know that room off the living room--and began my work day.  It's been a rough couple of days at work and I was facing how to handle those challenges first thing in the morning. 

My cell phone was dying so I plugged it in in the kitchen.  About a half hour later, I heard it beep the text message beep.  This was very exciting.  See, my phone goes off all day long for emails but most of my emails are from companies that I've signed up for the mailing list.  I rarely get personal emails and hardly ever get texts in the middle of the morning.

I got up and checked the message.  It was from a male friend of mine.  It read "Can u call me real fast on the dl Im [popping the] question today. On way to get ring n do it'.  I literally screamed--one of those moments it's really good that I work out of my home.

I of course called him immediately.  He was nervous, was telling me his ideas, and asking me what I thought he should do. Side note: Even someone who's only known me for 2 1/2 years knows that this is my area of expertise/interest and I should be the go-to. Love it! I talked to him for a few but I won't give away the details (his FIANCEE is one of the few people who know about this blog and it's not really my story to tell).

I worked and waited to hear back from him. I called my husband. I called my mother--who did not answer for the record. I tried desperately not to blurt it out over IM while the soon-to-be-popped-question-receiver and I chatted.  Probably another good reason I work from home because if I had this information and we still worked together, I'm not sure I could have hid how I was feeling. I tend to wear my feelings all over my face.

Eventually, around mid-afternoon I got the word. I did all my expected screaming. Shed a couple of tears. Did I mention I'm a sucker for love and weddings?  What a great day!

Later in the evening, after I thought it couldn't get any better, my friend that I grew up down the street from--one of the girls in my wedding--called me from the East Coast.  Before she could even get a word out, I tell her that I had been dreaming about her for TWO weeks.  It was true.  She had popped up in a bunch of my dreams.  I would be sitting at a table with a celebrity and on the other side of me there is my old friend.

She said, "Wow. Maybe you have some kind of intuition because I'm calling to tell you something. [Girlfriend's name] and I are getting married."

For the second time today, I screamed.  Shed a couple more tears. Then she couldn't understand me for a minute because I was yelling for her to tell me everything. The problem is when I get excited and start yelling I don't believe my cell phone can pick up my frequency. So I had to calm down a bit so she could tell me.

We spent the next hour catching up (it had been a while since we talked) and I did my best to get all the details (she's not really a detail kind of girl).

And there you have it.  One regular day turned into an AWESOME day where two friends that I love told me they were getting married.  What a great day. Now I can't wait to start helping them plan the weddings!

For my TV fan readers, here's my favorite.