My bestest friend leaves for Florida today. She is getting away from the psychic vampire that is Maine for awhile. And I am so totally going to miss her.
I’ve known her ever since I’ve moved here in December ’91. She started out as my boss at my first job in this state. But once we got to know one another, we became connected at the hip in a healthy way. She never once had to worry about me crossing the professional/personal boundary line at work, unlike some of the other “friends” that worked at the daycare. We’d go out to all hours of the night pretty much every day of the week and have scads of adventures, but once we were at work, no one had a clue we were so close.
We met an amazing number of people; good, bad, ugly, beautiful, incredibly sane, and certifiably nuts. I remember one guy who didn’t have a piece of paper and wanted to give J his phone number, so he wrote it on a large piece of campfire wood he had laying around in his vehicle. We were so busy going out and influencing fashion trends, going to the beach, going to the neighboring town, having and going to parties, going on planned and spur-of-the-moment road trips (once we found someone’s underwear in our parking space – that was a photo op), tanning our in-shape asses off, and just staying home (wherever that was at that moment) watching 90210 and Melrose Place with a bunch of friends with frosty beverages. I remember coming home from SixFlags at 3:00am in the morning and we saw the Aurora Borealis lights – so cool! I remember waking up and fixing “hangover noodles” for us both. I remember us searching for the perfect Christmas tree and shopping for the decorations for it. I remember J taking me to a male stripper show and paying for me to have a lap dance (yuck by the way). I remember us going on a whale watch in Providence. I remember going to the mall and finding over-the-knee suede boots – she got the black ones and I got the purple ones – and it was like we’d hit the jackpot. I remember J trying to teach me how to drive stick (yeah, still not gonna happen). I remember her taking me to my driver’s test and her jumping up and down like a crazy person when I passed. I remember her advising me to “open up and just dance with the next guy who asks you” and I did, but the guy starts fondling my hair and my eyes shot daggers at J as she laughed. I remember playing darts, Thumper, quarters, and “What the Fuck” (it’s just “Fuzzy Duck’ with different words) endlessly. I remember walking home at 2:00am without our shoes on and laughing hysterically the whole way home. I remember J always willing to drive to god-knows-where. So many memories…
When we went out, we had people just come up to us and ask to join us as we were constantly having fun no matter what. One of my favorite memories was discovering the Scorpion Bowl at a little dive of a Chinese food restaurant across the street from our usual bar/dive hangout. We would get these extremely long straws with the drink and the drink itself gave us an incredibly “happy buzz”. We get so jolly and then go dancing. Too much fun!
We laughed every day. Even when something happened that made one or both of us angry, sad, or upset, we made each other laugh and get through it. Granted we didn’t always see eye to eye on everything, but that’s a good thing as we never bored each other. We always had something to talk about and even the most trivial thing could morph into a deep philosophical discussion. I could (and can still) share things with her that I didn’t think I could share with anyone. We were (and are still) able to advise each other on serious things but also keep the fun in the friendship.
Time never seemed to be passing. I mean it passed, but every moment was so full that it didn’t seem like that that time in our lives would ever end. I don’t remember ever thinking towards the future. Our time was all on a daily or weekly basis.
But time did pass and while we developed separate interests and friends and the party times ended, we never lost touch with each other. J is definite that we are still going to continue to talk via phone or email while she is gone. But it’s not like having her here in person where we can talk face-to-face, or we go out to eat, or I pop over her place, or she comes over and rousts my ass out of being a hermit to play golf, or we go see a movie together, or we have a shopping spree together, or we go places, or…
I’m gonna miss her.
I’ve known her ever since I’ve moved here in December ’91. She started out as my boss at my first job in this state. But once we got to know one another, we became connected at the hip in a healthy way. She never once had to worry about me crossing the professional/personal boundary line at work, unlike some of the other “friends” that worked at the daycare. We’d go out to all hours of the night pretty much every day of the week and have scads of adventures, but once we were at work, no one had a clue we were so close.
We met an amazing number of people; good, bad, ugly, beautiful, incredibly sane, and certifiably nuts. I remember one guy who didn’t have a piece of paper and wanted to give J his phone number, so he wrote it on a large piece of campfire wood he had laying around in his vehicle. We were so busy going out and influencing fashion trends, going to the beach, going to the neighboring town, having and going to parties, going on planned and spur-of-the-moment road trips (once we found someone’s underwear in our parking space – that was a photo op), tanning our in-shape asses off, and just staying home (wherever that was at that moment) watching 90210 and Melrose Place with a bunch of friends with frosty beverages. I remember coming home from SixFlags at 3:00am in the morning and we saw the Aurora Borealis lights – so cool! I remember waking up and fixing “hangover noodles” for us both. I remember us searching for the perfect Christmas tree and shopping for the decorations for it. I remember J taking me to a male stripper show and paying for me to have a lap dance (yuck by the way). I remember us going on a whale watch in Providence. I remember going to the mall and finding over-the-knee suede boots – she got the black ones and I got the purple ones – and it was like we’d hit the jackpot. I remember J trying to teach me how to drive stick (yeah, still not gonna happen). I remember her taking me to my driver’s test and her jumping up and down like a crazy person when I passed. I remember her advising me to “open up and just dance with the next guy who asks you” and I did, but the guy starts fondling my hair and my eyes shot daggers at J as she laughed. I remember playing darts, Thumper, quarters, and “What the Fuck” (it’s just “Fuzzy Duck’ with different words) endlessly. I remember walking home at 2:00am without our shoes on and laughing hysterically the whole way home. I remember J always willing to drive to god-knows-where. So many memories…
When we went out, we had people just come up to us and ask to join us as we were constantly having fun no matter what. One of my favorite memories was discovering the Scorpion Bowl at a little dive of a Chinese food restaurant across the street from our usual bar/dive hangout. We would get these extremely long straws with the drink and the drink itself gave us an incredibly “happy buzz”. We get so jolly and then go dancing. Too much fun!
We laughed every day. Even when something happened that made one or both of us angry, sad, or upset, we made each other laugh and get through it. Granted we didn’t always see eye to eye on everything, but that’s a good thing as we never bored each other. We always had something to talk about and even the most trivial thing could morph into a deep philosophical discussion. I could (and can still) share things with her that I didn’t think I could share with anyone. We were (and are still) able to advise each other on serious things but also keep the fun in the friendship.
Time never seemed to be passing. I mean it passed, but every moment was so full that it didn’t seem like that that time in our lives would ever end. I don’t remember ever thinking towards the future. Our time was all on a daily or weekly basis.
But time did pass and while we developed separate interests and friends and the party times ended, we never lost touch with each other. J is definite that we are still going to continue to talk via phone or email while she is gone. But it’s not like having her here in person where we can talk face-to-face, or we go out to eat, or I pop over her place, or she comes over and rousts my ass out of being a hermit to play golf, or we go see a movie together, or we have a shopping spree together, or we go places, or…
I’m gonna miss her.
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