A Week of Old Friends

One emailed, asking for a lawyer in Tucson to whom she could refer a friend.

Two are going to pass us like ships in the night this week.  We're hoping to avoid a mid-sea collision, but we'd really like to have dinner together.

And then my roommate from sophomore year in college said she was coming to town.

It was a trifecta of loveliness.

The lawyer's name would be passed on with confidence.  We'll try to be organized enough to find our friends for a meal.  And I spent yesterday afternoon in my backyard, chatting up a storm with a woman I haven't seen for 25 years or so.

As I said, a trifecta of loveliness settle into my soul this weekend.

We sent her family off to the golf tournament, and we plunked ourselves in the lawn furniture, with snacks and drinks and each other.  The family was gone for two hours; it felt like fifteen minutes.

She'd been married to a guy from college, who'd been a friend of mine, as well.  She's divorced and remarried and while that was of peripheral interest, most of what we talked about revolved around how she reacted to the events of her life.  I shared my stories in the same vein.  The facts were less important than the emotions behind them.

We were finishing one another's sentences, coming up with the same snarky comments, laughing at ourselves and each other.  There was no down time.  We were never at a loss for words.  By the time her family returned from the golf, we were only up to 1994.  It was obvious that she was going to have to come back, again.... and soon.

So, this afternoon, checking my phone after Pilates, I was not surprised to see her offer to meet for lunch.  We dined, we go through the 1990's, and then we parted ways.  This time, it's not going to take two decades to finish the stories.

It helps that one of her granddaughters - the delightful Princess Z, five years of energy and pink rolled into a sweet bundle - now lives in town.  It's obvious that I understand that kind of attraction, despite the ten hour car ride required to access the hugs.

But I also know, because we could see it in our eyes, that a connection has been reestablished.  We remember one another as teenagers, as 20 somethings figuring out the world, Those pieces are still around, although not accessed as often as we might like.

The return to the past is lovely.  I don't want to go back, but it's nice to remember it with someone who was there.

I'm feeling quite young right now.