Make new friends, but keep the old...

Why is it that staying in touch with old friends is SO hard? What happens to us that we lose touch with people that we spent every day, or several days a week with in our past?

I was so blessed last week to have the opportunity to catch up with 3 old friends. Actually, catch up with one and reconnect with 2 (who happen to have married each other).

My friend Melissa moved to AZ to marry the man of her dreams. And honestly, he'd be the man of MY dreams if he wasn't married to her! Melissa and Nate have a fabulous marriage and a beautiful little boy, and the connection between them is amazing. She and I stay in touch through email and our blogs, and we send about half a novel to each other every couple months to catch each other up. And once a year, she comes back to Pennsylvania to get together with her family and friends. I was lucky enough to catch up with her and her family for a couple hours in a diner between where she was staying and where I live. It was JUST like old times - no one else could get a word in edgewise because we pick up where we left off. We both speak quickly and we still have that friends' "shorthand" that no one but us understands. It was a Friday night and the diner was empty, sort of, and I had a great time with the three of them. Unfortunately, my fiance and her husband just kinda had to sit back and watch, because, well, they're men and they don't bond the way women do.

Saturday was spent with extended family at the annual reunion picnic. Once a year, my mother's family gets together so we see each other outside of the occasional wedding and/or funeral. And trust me, the funerals are far outnumbering the weddings as we all age (gracefully, of course!). This gives us a chance to catch up on everyone and their families, and it's a lot of fun.

Saturday night, I got a phone call from a girl with whom I was friendly most of my high school years. I'd gone to her wedding, kept in touch after her son was born and she divorced the @$$ that was his father, through her second marriage I think I saw her once, and then all of a sudden - WHAM - we lost touch. Through a networking website, she found me and we began emailing. Next thing I know, I get a phone call from her and we spent 2 hours on the phone reminiscing, catching up on old times and each others' families and laughing til I thought we'd burst. I'm thrilled to have heard from her and her husband, who was also part of the group with whom we associated in high school. It's funny how all the old social crap falls away, and we're all just parents and homeowners with more in common than you'd ever have thought way back when.

There's something about reconnecting with old friends that just makes me happy. Perhaps it's the lack of "new" friends in my life, or the fact that I really never had a chance to stay in touch with them because when I married my (now ex) husband, his friends became our friends, and there wasn't room for mine anymore. Who knows? And now, who cares? I'm happier than I've ever been and reconnecting with old friends is just the icing on the cake.

SO - Donna and Melissa, if you read this, know that you both hold a special place in my heart, and it is my intention to NEVER allow us to lose touch.