Old Friends

Dr. K and Not-Kathy are back in Tucson, after 6 months and 28 countries of adventures.  TBG and I couldn't be more delighted.  We four have been friends for decades.  We've gone through graduate schools and job searches and pregnancies and colleges and job searches for our children. 

What goes around, comes around.  It's nice to watch it with people I love.

The first time I heard him laugh after I got shot, TBG was out on the patio, guffawing with Not-Kathy.  For the first time in a long time, he forgot to be sad.  That only happens with someone you trust, I think.

Not-Kathy introduces us to people as the ones who had to approve of me.  I'm not sure that's completely true, but I will admit that we took a proprietary interest in Dr. K's future partner. After I set him up on a blind date with a girl who broke up with him most unpleasantly many months later, I felt I owed him..... big time.

But it was easy to love her, and she fit right in, and she brought so much along with her. I babysat her first born.  They hung hand-blown-and-decorated-with-lace-and-paint Easter eggs in their big backyard with mine.  She made gingerbread houses with The Cuters when they were small, I hosted her daughter's college roommates around my pool when they were grown.

And now they are here for many weeks.  This afternoon, I invited myself to her parents' house.  I had a hole in my day and I thought they might welcome a diversion from preparing taxes.  We chatted, they ate, we chatted some more, we made plans and confirmed our weekend plans before I drove off to Pilates and home.

It's very nice to have them around.  Comfy and happy and easy.  Deep and honest with little held back.  No pretense. 

We're just there, in the moment, with all those years of moments pillowing the experience.

Old friends........