Old Friends

One of the perks with Jackson and Brandi living on the west coast is that one of my oldest - and bestest - friends lives in Oregon in a town about 5 hours away. We let them know ahead of time when we will be in town and they do an overnighter at a local hotel so we can visit. When I saw Kim this time she said "do you realize we've seen each other more in the past year than we have in the past 30 or so?" And she was right - we've see  each other 3 times, when she came to my house in August, when we were here in December and again this time. 

Kim and I have know each other since Elementary school and became best friends later on - but she moved away when she was 18. She married Stephen and off they went, they never came back to live in Hampton Bays. I stayed for about 20 (?) more years(against my better judgment I might add) and then off I went. Between the two of us we've leap frogged all over! She's been in Virginia, Maine, I think Vermont, Oregon. We've been ping-ponging back and forth across West Virginia and Pennsylvania for now almost 20 years, I often think it's amazing that not only did our friendship continue but has always remained intact - we've never lost touch with each other. When they were first married it was a bit easier, we saw them all the time as it was driving distance for them to come home on the weekends and of course the summer vacation that all college students have. Then they moved to Virginia - but still came home, just not as frequently. Then we all had children and it became harder, we managed to visit them a few times, they still came up, but not as much. We began to depend more on phone calls and letters, pictures of babies in the mail. Email came and that changed it - no more waiting for a week for letters, instant response. And now - cell phones so no more worrying or limiting calls because of long distance charges. Email has given way to texting and I told Kim we can start video chatting. At some point we will live near each other again, full circle. Ending where we started - near enough to ride our bikes to each other's house I hope.