old friends and new introductions

I've been thinking a lot about old friends lately, especially as I try to scale back some things and re-prioritize a bit. I am going to be seeing a lot of friends on our upcoming trip and I am starting to be giddy with anticipation.

Oliver and I will be spending a few days with my best friend while CD does the work thing in Boston. Tika and I met in Williamstown during the summer of 1986 and formed what seems like an instant bond. I'm not sure how or why, but I am very glad that it happened and that we are still close friends today. I know that she makes me a better person and when I go a long time without seeing her, I get increasingly unhappy with both myself and the world. I would be a very different person today if I had not met her, and I seriously doubt I would like that person or want to be anywhere near her!

The house, which I started going to when it was her mother's summer cottage, is quite possibly my favorite place to relax. In truth, it is one of the few place I have ever been able to relax completely. I am always very well taken care of there and it holds many fond memories. Now I get to introduce Oliver to this special place and I hope he is as happy there as I am. It's really a crime that she doesn't have kids, but that's a story for another day and a situation I hope changes before I get around to writing it.

Another highlight of our trip will be a quick day trip to Williams, another of my most favorite places on earth, and another place I have been eager to take Oliver. I will be catching up with a few more old friends there, ones I have failed to keep in touch with for about 13 years. I looked up their email addresses yesterday (thank you Google - I take back all the mean things I have been saying about you lately) and fired off hopeful messages. I had responses and invitations to visit from both of them in a matter of minutes. Huge sighs of relief....I was so afraid they would not remember me!

And when Oliver and I go back to Boston to fetch CD at the conclusion of his conference, we are meeting my oldest friend for lunch. I have known Bill (dubbed "good Bill" by many of my college friends) for nearly 23 years, longer than just about anyone who isn't part of my family. I first saw him when he was a freshman in college and I was a freshman in high school. 1980. I spied his blue eyes under his football helmet and was done for, and for quite some time, in a typically high-school-girl sort of way. I did a small bit of amateur sleuthing to find out more about him and followed his football career, but nothing prepared me for meeting him face to face in a very small class I was admitted to three years later, in 1983, when we were both seniors. We became friends, and had a truly odd relationship, but always managed to stay in touch somehow, all these years. I last saw him at my wedding, three years ago. He has two daughters now, including a brand spanky new one that is just a couple of weeks old. (This isn't going to be good for my severe case of baby fever AT ALL!) It will be fun to catch up again, this time with children.

Go call or email an old friend you've been meaning to catch up with. You'll be glad you did.