22 Years and Counting

One of my oldest and dearest friends, Mandi, arrives today from Atlanta, and I must admit I'm a little over the moon about it.

There is something so special about having friendships that precede life today, even from the era before college, friends from way before you had mortgages, jobs, cars and insurance. Heck, this friendship is pre-braces for both of us.

We met in Girl Scouts in the 4th grade (even back then I hated sales), and have stayed extremely close ever since. For one crazy summer in about 6th grade, we even looked alike. Same height, same coloring, same cotton-candy bangs and badly permed hair, same mouth-full-of-metal, same skinny chicken legs. So much so that when we played softball together, with her dad and my mom coaching, they would confuse us as they cheered for us running around the bases. Our own parents.

Now, I easily have 5 inches and at least 30 pounds on her. And, she won homecoming queen and I did not.

But that's beside the point.

We played basketball, tennis, softball and swimming together. She cheered, and I danced (for one really bad season that involved wearing blue/white gloves and a routine to "You Dropped a Bomb on Me") on the sidelines. We did prom together, sleepovers, sneakouts, and collected injuries and great memories while on our escapades. We've been through happy times, and some pretty horrible experiences that involved scary situations and hospital rooms and best friends in car accidents and nightmarish events and luckily everyone is okay now things.

I introduced her to her now-husband when we were in high school, we pledged the same house, we lived together in college, I stood up in her wedding (and ripped the bridesmaid dress right up the back on the way INTO the reception), we traveled Europe with another friend after graduating from the same University, I have held both of her children as babies, she has visited me here in Chicago in my "other life," and we have literally laughed until we cried more times than I can count.

And, that, in my opinion, is worth more than the moon. Over it, I'd say.

So, I'll be offline today, and this will be my only post. Which, for the readers who have been begging me to slow down and stop posting so often, will serve as a mini-hiatus until Monday. Or, Sunday night when I log back on and can't resist the urge to tell YET ANOTHER great story.

Because, with Mandi here in my city, there is bound to be at least one.

Until then, e-mail an old friend. It's healthy. It's fun. It's therapeutic. It's Friday, and you were ignoring that deadline anyway.