Old friends, revisited

Here I sit at the Honda dealer, doing what I love to do every time I come here--making great use of the free Internet access!

Today is really a very special day for me. I am going up to my old college stomping grounds, New Brunswick, and am meeting two of my dear friends for lunch.

I am meeting Paul. I met him my senior year of college--I was his RA and he lived next door to me. After school we stayed in touch and I have travelled to Sedona (in 2002) and California (in 2005, he was living there for work at the time but moved back to east about a year ago) with him. 2005 was the last time I saw him, so I am looking forward to seeing him again. What's weird is the fact that I saw him out in California, but we can't even manage to see one another now that he's back in NJ.

With all due respect to Paul, who I really am looking forward to seeing, we are also meeting up with Judy. I met Judy my junior year and we hit it off immediately. We then actually both lived in New Brunswick one summer and she was a great friend to me during a very rough spot in my life when everything was coming to an end with John. She saw me daily, through my worst, and saw me come out better on the other side of it all, praise God.

One great Judy story that has made a lot of people laugh over the years was a day when Judy was very excited to sit down and watch a TV re-run of the movie "Krush Groove." Well, unfortunately for Judy, that was the day that OJ decided to have his friend drive him away in a white Bronco. All TV was preempted for that spectacle. Judy, who was borderline furious, then spoke the immortal words, "I guess they won't be giving Krush Groove!" That was something that made me laugh very hard during a period where I simply didn't have much else to laugh about. I still laugh today and so does anyone else I tell the story too, I think it's all because it was Krush Groove...any other movie just wouldn't be as funny.

I have not seen Judy in 10 years. We have e-mailed sporadically, spoke even more sporadically, but have always loved each other. I can't tell you how happy I feel to be going to finally see her again with my own eyes.

Judy and Paul were born the exact same day in the same year and to me they are very different people. The great thing is that they have always been friendly as well, so we are really going to have a great time. The date has been a long time coming, because we were originally supposed to do this 2 months ago, but then Judy broke her driving foot a couple days before!

A day like today reminds me how very blessed I am that I have so many people in my life, a lot really, but, more important than the number is the fact that I give and receive love from all of these people, in various ways, whether I see them weekly or I see them every 10 years.

We always pick right up where we left off, and that is a gift. I don't care how often you are able to speak to me or see me. As long as you are able to love me and respect me from wherever it is that you are--then you will always be a friend of mine, no matter what.