Item #35 – Reconnect with an Old Friend
40 Things for 40 Years in 40 Weeks: Item #35 (Things I Really Enjoy) – Reconnect with an Old Friend
Sometimes in life, we lose touch with people. Whether it be due to growing apart, moving away or parting ways after a disagreement – it happens. I pride myself on nurturing many of my long time friendships but I have been guilty of losing friends for all of these reasons. Now that I am a mom and have little people that depend on me for their full time care, I am not as good at staying in touch with people. It’s not because I don’t want to but because there just isn’t enough time in the day and my kids come first – but I do try.
Luckily we have Facebook and Instagram to keep up with what is going on in everyone else’s life at an instant. We can send a quick text or instant message to let people know that we are thinking of them from the line at the grocery store. Even picking up the phone to hear someone else’s voice no longer requires being at home or even paying long distance charges but it does require time which all of us are short on. Connecting in person though remains to be the most fulfilling in my opinion but living out of state from so many people that I know and love often prevents this for me and trying to visit everyone when we do go home is nearly impossible. So in the interest of reconnecting, I added “reconnect with an old friend” as #35 on my #40for40in40 list.
Luckily for me, I had an old friend reach out to me recently to say she was coming to Seattle for a getaway. Not only did she want to get together but she had been reading my posts about my #40for40in40 list and requested that we get together to do something on my list! I could think of nothing better than fulfilling #35!
Suz and I were neighbors when my family first moved from Paradise to Fair Oaks. Just a year apart in age and both April birthdays, we hit it off right away and became fast friends. Now remember, this was 1987… before cell phones, the internet, social media and all the other things that kids do now. Nintendo was just about to come out with Super Mario Brothers but I think that and having cable TV was about the extent of the technology in our world. We rode bikes together, made up dance routines in the street, baked cookies at each other’s houses, read the “Babysitters Club” and “Sweet Valley High” books, went to the mall and even fell in love with our first boy band together (NKOTB forever!).
We never went to the same school and eventually her family moved to another neighborhood but we kept in touch. Over time, we both got busy with becoming young adults, enrolled in college and eventually lost touch. We reconnected about 10 years ago just before we moved to Seattle and Suz, Brenda and I had dinner in the Bay Area. Again, we lost touch but then Facebook came along and we reconnected that way.
Last week almost 30 years after we met in October of 1987, Suz came to Seattle. We met for lunch at one of my favorite Tom Douglas restaurants and then we went to the amazing (and nut-free!) Hello Robin for dessert. Now both wives and moms of two boys each, we caught up over lunch and dessert on everything! Parents, siblings, grandparents, cousins, mutual friends, careers, parenthood, home ownership and best of all memories. We laughed and talked non-stop for 3 hours (which when it’s kid free, uninterrupted adult conversation feels like a year!).
Thank you for reaching out Suz and being so enthusiastic about completing an item on my list! It was great to catch up after all this time and I do hope we get a chance to do it again soon!
P.S. You are still nice.
And so that completes #35 on my list. 12 items checked off the list and 28 to go! Stay tuned for more… #40for40in40