ON THE LIPS?
I turned and took a few steps back toward the door and Miles came chugging outside. I went to his level and he gave me a kiss. I looked up at Natalie and I said something, maybe it was "bye" as I walked toward my car. I was too busy trying not to cry like the two-year old Miles actually happens to be.
This is the latest event to mark my gerrymandering of Sacramento County.
Steve and Shelly left. They moved to Florida. Screw them and their taking my excuse to go out to dinner and have meaningful conversations with their cats.
Rebekah is threatening to move. She has an opportunity to live in Hawaii. Whatever. Hawaiian Punch tastes terrible anyway.
Gertie is leaving soon, too. She's going to Chicago. Yah, well go ahead and choke on the deep-dish, see if I care.
Now Natalie is leaving. She's moving to the BayArea. But her leaving also means that my favorite palindrome - her daughter Hannah and the eating machine Miles are leaving, too. Before I left tonight I was standing and reading some of Hannah's poetry.
Kicked me in the emotional nuts I tells ya.
Steve and Shelly I might be able to see again soon. I have to check on flights and whether or not I have a job after this week. But it sounds like their schedules are so packed that I'd have to get a job as a housekeeper to spend any time with them. If I am out of a job this might actually work out pretty well. Scheduling GTalk sessions and waiting 48 hours for an email response to something that I wrote that was really funny is getting the best of me.
Rebekah as a great opportunity and it might be the only way she stops being the hockey puck for her family. Her next tattoo should be on her forehead and read "RIDE WHORE". And backwards so that it can be read from the back seat by her latest passenger (that would be "EROHW EDIR"). There are opportunities here. But they have colleges in Hawaii, too. I hear they hand out tans on the beaches there. You do know the pineapple is not native to Hawaii, right?
Gertie has a chance to have a cush job in the head office with different job duties. If she doesn't like it she can add the new duties to her resume and move back. SHEE-CAHG-OOOO. I can visit Chicago. There's lots to see and do. It's a good road trip, too.
Natalie leaving is just three times as painful and the time line is stretched out so far. Natalie was my very first girlfriend in the 5th grade and we were each other's first kiss. Sort of. Unless you count Rachel Gassman in the 1st grade - which I do, the first hint that I had a penchant for redheads. Or soft brown hair. Depends on how you look at it. Her hair was redder in kindergarten.
The point.
Oh, yah.
Natalie and I were not very close after junior high and oddly never had a single class together in high school. I only bumped into her every so often. Our circle of "friends" didn't orbit close enough to each other. She moved after graduation and I moved. It was a very long time until I talked to her or even saw her again. Hannah was already in school. And Natalie was married. Over the next few years I didn't see much of her. Married and with a child isn't the same as being married. Natalie and I both went through a lot over about the same time period. While Natalie's marriage was going into the toilet I was officiating Steve and Shelly fixing theirs. Steve and Shelly were really just children themselves if you wanted to compare those two situations.
Kerry left for New Jersey last year. Elyse is in Colorado. Lise is in Seattle. Michelle from the BayArea is in San Diego. Katie is in Oregon, I think. At least Michelle from Redding is back in Redding. Kristy is still in PA, though.
Poor me?
Not at all.
People are living their lives. Taking a big chunk out of it with their teeth. Opportunity isn't a bad thing. Friends are always friends. No matter the zip code. That's why they hang around your thoughts even when they aren't there. That and you want to see if you can snare a good birthday and Christmas present out of them. And there are probably some people you think about but haven't talked to in a long time. If you are thinking about them you obviously care to one degree or another - they are friends of another context.
So my friends move. They won't be replaced by new friends. Maybe I'll make a few new friends and then they can meet all my other friends, too. That's how it works, right? Steve and Shelly met a few of my friends and now all know the power of Shelly getting into your face. Gertie met Katie and Katie met Kristin. Carrye met Gertie and she met Natalie.
Maybe I need to stop turning away when something hits me in the face. Last year I don't think Miles gets a kiss without a fight. He probably would have beat me up in a fight, anyway. It's hard to turn down a kid who asks were you are every time you leave the room. Little Girl Kate and Miles should hook up some time.
It has just taken me too long to realize that my immediate circle of friends are not the only friends I am allowed to have. But here's the question I am leaving you with; do you know the precise moment you make a friend?
I turned and took a few steps back toward the door and Miles came chugging outside. I went to his level and he gave me a kiss. I looked up at Natalie and I said something, maybe it was "bye" as I walked toward my car. I was too busy trying not to cry like the two-year old Miles actually happens to be.
This is the latest event to mark my gerrymandering of Sacramento County.
Steve and Shelly left. They moved to Florida. Screw them and their taking my excuse to go out to dinner and have meaningful conversations with their cats.
Rebekah is threatening to move. She has an opportunity to live in Hawaii. Whatever. Hawaiian Punch tastes terrible anyway.
Gertie is leaving soon, too. She's going to Chicago. Yah, well go ahead and choke on the deep-dish, see if I care.
Now Natalie is leaving. She's moving to the BayArea. But her leaving also means that my favorite palindrome - her daughter Hannah and the eating machine Miles are leaving, too. Before I left tonight I was standing and reading some of Hannah's poetry.
Kicked me in the emotional nuts I tells ya.
Steve and Shelly I might be able to see again soon. I have to check on flights and whether or not I have a job after this week. But it sounds like their schedules are so packed that I'd have to get a job as a housekeeper to spend any time with them. If I am out of a job this might actually work out pretty well. Scheduling GTalk sessions and waiting 48 hours for an email response to something that I wrote that was really funny is getting the best of me.
Rebekah as a great opportunity and it might be the only way she stops being the hockey puck for her family. Her next tattoo should be on her forehead and read "RIDE WHORE". And backwards so that it can be read from the back seat by her latest passenger (that would be "EROHW EDIR"). There are opportunities here. But they have colleges in Hawaii, too. I hear they hand out tans on the beaches there. You do know the pineapple is not native to Hawaii, right?
Gertie has a chance to have a cush job in the head office with different job duties. If she doesn't like it she can add the new duties to her resume and move back. SHEE-CAHG-OOOO. I can visit Chicago. There's lots to see and do. It's a good road trip, too.
Natalie leaving is just three times as painful and the time line is stretched out so far. Natalie was my very first girlfriend in the 5th grade and we were each other's first kiss. Sort of. Unless you count Rachel Gassman in the 1st grade - which I do, the first hint that I had a penchant for redheads. Or soft brown hair. Depends on how you look at it. Her hair was redder in kindergarten.
The point.
Oh, yah.
Natalie and I were not very close after junior high and oddly never had a single class together in high school. I only bumped into her every so often. Our circle of "friends" didn't orbit close enough to each other. She moved after graduation and I moved. It was a very long time until I talked to her or even saw her again. Hannah was already in school. And Natalie was married. Over the next few years I didn't see much of her. Married and with a child isn't the same as being married. Natalie and I both went through a lot over about the same time period. While Natalie's marriage was going into the toilet I was officiating Steve and Shelly fixing theirs. Steve and Shelly were really just children themselves if you wanted to compare those two situations.
Kerry left for New Jersey last year. Elyse is in Colorado. Lise is in Seattle. Michelle from the BayArea is in San Diego. Katie is in Oregon, I think. At least Michelle from Redding is back in Redding. Kristy is still in PA, though.
Poor me?
Not at all.
People are living their lives. Taking a big chunk out of it with their teeth. Opportunity isn't a bad thing. Friends are always friends. No matter the zip code. That's why they hang around your thoughts even when they aren't there. That and you want to see if you can snare a good birthday and Christmas present out of them. And there are probably some people you think about but haven't talked to in a long time. If you are thinking about them you obviously care to one degree or another - they are friends of another context.
So my friends move. They won't be replaced by new friends. Maybe I'll make a few new friends and then they can meet all my other friends, too. That's how it works, right? Steve and Shelly met a few of my friends and now all know the power of Shelly getting into your face. Gertie met Katie and Katie met Kristin. Carrye met Gertie and she met Natalie.
Maybe I need to stop turning away when something hits me in the face. Last year I don't think Miles gets a kiss without a fight. He probably would have beat me up in a fight, anyway. It's hard to turn down a kid who asks were you are every time you leave the room. Little Girl Kate and Miles should hook up some time.
It has just taken me too long to realize that my immediate circle of friends are not the only friends I am allowed to have. But here's the question I am leaving you with; do you know the precise moment you make a friend?