"You've Got A Friend In Me"

Well folks.....it's not Tuesday and once again I'm late writing my ToT (Together on Tuesday) post. To all of you giving me the stink eye, I apologize. Really, I'm pretty sure that none of my faithful readers are giving me the stink eye. My people are nice. And I'm not really sure that I have any faithful readers anyway...and that's ok. Anyway, onto the topic at hand.........

This weeks ToT topic is, "How do you stay in contact with your friends?"

I love that I have friends that knew me before 1990. I love that I still remain close with gals from high school. I love that I have friends from college who knew me when I was trying to figure out the world. And I love that I have friends that I have made in adulthood and figuring out paying the mortgage, marriage and babies. You know what, I just love my friends. I like having a lot of friends, but I also really enjoy those relationships that I can really depend on. Those people who help pick you back up when you've fallen down. Those people who will be there in thick and thin. Those people who love you for being YOU.

I guess I'll start with the friendships that I've had the longest. They are cherished. I love all of these women like they were my sisters. Seriously, sometimes I'm not sure how I would survive without them. They are auntie's to my children

One of these friends, I met in Mrs Williams Kindergarten class. Yeah, we've stayed in touch that long. We email, we Facebook. We hang out regularly. Of course, we've had times when we have not remained as close. Such as college. We went to different schools and while they were near each other, it just wasn't practical to visit. We did email from time to time and catch up sometimes during school breaks, but the friendship wasn't the same until we were both living in the same city again. Eventually we started hanging out more and things were like old times again....like we picked up where we left off. Oh and this time we were dragging our husbands into it as well! It's a good thing, they get along. Now we live like 5 minutes from each other, like we did all those years growing up. And we get to watch our kiddos grow up together. It's nice to have someone around that knew you before you were an adult. The person who knew the carefree child that you once were, who liked to sing to Beach Boys songs in the back yard.

Another one of these friends I've known since about 3rd grade. We met at church. She's one of those friends who I love dearly, but who I don't get to see very often. We keep in touch through Facebook (I know some people hate the idea of FB, but really, it makes it so much easier to stay in contact with friends). She doesn't live nearby anymore so I get to see her when she makes trips home to visit family. And sometimes, we just can't work out a visit even if she is home. I love the fact that she and I can have different views on things (particularly politics), but at the end of the day, we are able to put that completely past us and focus on the things we have in common rather than the things that we don't have in common.

Then, I have twins in my life other than the ones that I will give birth to in a couple of months. We met our senior year of high school and remained close throughout college by emailing frequently and making sure that we met up when we were home. Now that we are grown ups (YIKES) we are still close even though life has taken us in many different directions. One is an attorney on the north side of Indy, the other is a professor at a college in Illinois and as you all know, I'm a stay at home mom/photographer. We still email occasionally. The attorney and I will grab lunch every now and then. And the professor and I will try and get together when she is in town. One thing that we make sure we do is a Christmas Eve brunch. We meet up at a different restaurant every year and exchange a small gift. We sit and talk and laugh and eat. It's a time that look forward to every year. It's one of those can't miss events. And now that I have Georgie, she comes along too. She loves to see her aunties!

College friends. This is a tricky one. There are so many that I would love to see and talk to more often. But, there is a group of mine that I make sure to see every year. We all live in different places, Arizona, Chicago, Madison, Haiti and of course here in Indy. Some of us keep in better contact than others (the gals do a much better job shooting a message to each other then the boys) but when the holidays are drawing near, someone sends out that email wondering when we are going to try to gather. Several times we've met up in Chicago-which was kind of central since a couple of folks were flying into O'hare airport, one lives there, and the drive isn't too bad for the rest of us. Last year we met at my house. Instead of going out to restaurants and fighting crowds and traffic, we were able to sit around my house, play games, make dinner together and enjoy each other in a low key setting. Its always a good time to hang out with these folks and talk about stupid college stuff. It's also great to see where life is taking the rest of the gang. I love to hear about what they are doing and what life has in store for them.

And lastly, there are those friends that Nolan and I have made together as a married couple. Most of these people we go to church with and many of those we went to college with, but were not close with until now. We do have a group that meets about every other Wednesday. We share a meal at someone's home and socialize. We help each other with problems and listen to each others joys. We know that we can depend on one another. We pray for each other. Many in our group are not as fortunate as myself, they do not have family close and so we kind of act as each others family.

Those are some of my friends. I have lots of different things that I do to keep in contact with them. I love them all. I wish I saw some of them more often than I do, but life gets in the way. Sometimes work, relationships, families and all sorts of other things take our time and our social life just gets pushed aside. I'm glad that some of my friendships have withstood this and can accommodate the changes in my life as well as theirs. There is always a bit of work that must be done to keep these relationships. Sometimes its easy, like sending an email and sometimes its hard like rearranging schedules and driving for a few hours to spend the evening with friends far away. Either way, to me its worth it.

"We'll be friends forever, won't we Pooh?' asked Piglet. 'Even longer,' answered Pooh."

Make sure to see what DanielleMichelleCharlotte, and Sarah have to say about their friends and what helps them stay in contact with those special folks in their lives!



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