Friends

Tonight, I got a surprise phone call from Megan. One of my two oldest, dearest friends. She was travelling through Jackson, on her way home from a training workshop for her job and thought about me, which of course prompted her to call. We talked for a few, and in the end, she turned around and came to hang out at my house for the evening.

I love our impromtu get-togethers. We rarely have time to see each other anymore, and during our time apart, it never really occurs to me how much I miss her. At least, not the way it sinks in right after she's left.

The cool part about Meg and I is that we can go months without speaking or saying a word to each other, but the second we're together...it's like picking up a book you just set down. We finish each others sentences, we laugh at our punchlines before they happen...we just get each other so well that we can be absent, but never really disconnected.

I'm sitting here trying to think if we've ever even had a fight...and I can't really say that we have. Certainly we've irritated the piss out of each other...that's what friends are for. But, never have we parted on a bad note or ever screamed and yelled at each other. We've never needed to...because we're so in sync, we just get it. We don't have to necessarily like what each other does...but we understand the whys of each others actions, and are able to support each other without offense. Besides the fact I know that she'd never willingly hurt me, I also know that if I'm screwing up, she's going to gently knock me back into my place without ever divulging that she knows I'm off track. It's a beautiful thing.

We have a "thing". We LOVE the movie Beaches. It's a sobfest, a chick-flick, and it's one of my favorite movies of all times. When Meg lived in Chicago, and I in Traverse City, MI I remember her calling me at least once a year absolutely sobbing. The only words she would utter were "I love you." And I would reply with "I love you too. Now, slowly push the stop button on the VCR." Sho-enough...she'd be watching Beaches. Speaking of Beaches...anyone know if that's out on DVD yet? I don't even OWN a VCR anymore! I haven't seen it in a long, long time. I could use a good sob fest.

This post has a couple of points. Obviously, one of them is that I love Meg. But the second one...

The second one is that I feel lucky to have such awesome friends. Meg is my oldest friend. We've been through everything together. But I also have 8 other friends that are perfect to me in their own sordid, quirky ways. I love all of them. Some I only get to talk to every couple of months. Some I get to see regularly. Some I never see, only email because we're so far away from each other. One, who I would classify as so much more than what the title "friend" implies, I haven't been able to talk to in a year and 11 days. But...the connection is always there. Life moves on, but so do our friendships. Even when we're busy, even when we're bogged down by the details of life we still manage to continue our friendships, in person or not.
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EDITED TO ADD: You'll also be happy to know I've maxed out my Flickr account (link to the right) with new photos. I'll add more next month. There's 65 photos on there now...kids, animals, family...you know. The norm.