Best Friend Nostalgia

 Yesterday was one big example of how the Universe can step in and make things happen in your life if you only take a moment to listen to the promptings it is giving you.  I made a bunch of plans, that were quickly changed on a whim, and those changes provided me with an alternative path that turned out to be amazing.

You see, it was only a few days ago that I typed up an incredibly long blog post about a friend of mine who I hadn't seen in a very long time.  I hadn't posted it yet, I was saving it for a good day to tell a story from my past.  Now I see that the Universe didn't want me to post it because I had stuff to add to it. 

Yesterday, I had planned on going into work to make up hours from being sick, but the plans were changed because The Roommate didn't have to go into work until later than usual, so we all went to breakfast.  However, breakfast had to be done by about 11:30.  (Funny the little time-lines the Universe provides!) So I went to breakfast with David, Josh, and Zach and then they dropped me off at home.  I was at a loss for what to do after that, but all I knew was I did not want to spend another day sitting around my apartment.  There had been enough of that when I was sick.

It was a nice day out, so I thought I'd go to the park and read.  Ten minutes later-it was gloomy and the forecast said rain.  Thinking that was just my luck, I decided to go to Barnes & Nobles and get coffee and browse around, but worried I'd be too tempted to buy a book when I'm saving money right now.  However, both my mother and my coworker prompted me to just go. 

After I got my Green Tea Latte and started browsing the shelves and started thinking about leaving, my friend Cristina called to ask if I wanted to do lunch, and said she'd meet me there in a half hour.  So I changed my mind and kept browsing through the books.  When she finally showed up, she told me she thought she'd seen Melanie (my best friend through High School and the few years after) over in the Cafe, so I walked over to see.  Sure enough, there she sat with her laptop after just having met one of her photographers to pick up a CD. 

We were both shocked at the way the Universe had brought us together!  We'd been living within blocks of each other for months and had never found the time to meet up, and here it was pushing our paths back together only days before she moves to San Francisco.

So she joined Cristina and I for lunch, and then after Cristina had to run to class Melanie and I spent the rest of the day together.  We ran a few errands, visited my apartment for a bit, and then I helped her move her stuff from the storage unit to the place where her moving truck would pick it up.  I was introduced to her boy (submissive) and to her super-hot boyfriend, and found them both to be agreeable company.  It was a lot of hard work (which I actually loved) and I was rewarded with spending a few amazing hours with my long-time best friend that I had not seen in a very long time.  After the moving, we had sushi and then I went home to bed.

In my personal opinion, if we had not spent yesterday together, we may never have rekindled our friendship.  I may have never gotten her new phone number, or made plans to come visit her in San Francisco... I'm glad to have my friend back.  Yesterday was awesome.

 Here is the post I wrote up a few days ago.

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03/01/2010

The other day, I took the time to look at an old friend's Myspace page, and it was astounding to me how much can change in a few short years.  I know, I know, bring on the nostalgia, but I can't help taking a moment to think about how different my life is today than it was six years ago when I graduated High School.

Senior year I was the Costume Mistress for Macbeth, which we also happened to be taking to Shakespeare competition that year.  That was my first time accompanying the Masque club on their annual trip to the festival, and I was so very excited.  It was on that trip that I truly made friends within the drama department and found what would be my place for the rest of the school year.

It still makes me smile when I think of the bus trip down there. Melanie and Scotty making out in the back right hand seat, Bob and Gus-Gus pretending they weren't crazy about each other in the back left seat, Alicia and Moses to the right of me under a blanket, some crazy red-head planting herself next to me for the trip, and Pookie in the seat directly in front of me.  Little did I know at the time, that darling redhead would quickly become one of my good friends, and the boy I was flirting with the entire trip (Pookie) was gay.  One of the chaperon's even made an announcement: "If you are under a blanket with a member of the opposite sex, we ask you to do the right thing and come out from there."  It was hilarious.

 Anyway, it all really started by sharing a hotel room.  It was my friend Alicia, her friend Melanie, the chaperon, and myself in a hotel room.  Alicia and Melanie were in the middle of a fight, and since I didn't know Melanie very well yet, I shared the queen size bed with Alicia, who wanted to make sure that Melanie knew she was the outsider.  However, as the trip went on Alicia ditched me to hang out with other people, and I found myself growing closer to Melanie out of our mutual anger at Alicia's actions.

From the Left: Me, Alicia, Melanie, & Ms. Curley

Masque Club Awards Ceremony 2004

After that trip, Melanie and I were inseparable for the rest of the school year and the following summer.  Together we did many shows, acted, house-sat for her boyfriend while he was away, quit religion and found religion, held circles in the park, filled sketchbooks full of morbid drawings, wrote poem after poem, cried and laughed.

 Working with lights in the AP.

When summer ended, Melanie moved a few hours away to go to college.  We spoke nearly every night on the phone, and I spent a lot of weekends with her.  She made a slew of new friends, including a guy that would become my first boyfriend (read some of that story here) and her awesome roommate CJ.

Visiting her introduced me to an entirely new world, a world where people didn't live with their parents and they led their own lives.  It was my first awakening to the world of  being an adult, and it was a huge prompt to go and start down my own path.

Melanie and CJ. 

I moved to Ogden to live with my first boyfriend, and we lived right around the corner from each other.  We spent massive amounts of time together again.  We made it through the both of us losing our virginity, her breakup with her boyfriend of 4 years, my breakup with my live-in boyfriend, her and CJ both moving in with me, CJ moving back to Montana, me moving to California and back, countless other boyfriends, Melanie moving out and me nearly getting evicted, until finally we ended up living together on Jefferson avenue in Ogden.  

Halloween 2006

They say that sometimes, no matter how much you love someone, you can't live with them.  Melanie and I found this to be true, especially since we were living on bunk beds in a one bedroom dump of a house.  Living together nearly destroyed our friendship entirely.  Eventually, when we couldn't handle it anymore, she moved with her boyfriend to Denver, and I moved in with my grandmother.  We didn't speak for nearly 3 months, but eventually the bond that we'd always had helped us to remember how much we cared about each other, and we made up.  She even came to visit.

Melanie and me on her visit home from Denver.

Now it's been several years and I barely talk to her anymore.  The occasional hello on IM or Myspace, no more phone calls or emails... Our friendship has seemed to drift further and further apart, as our paths in life are leading off in two different directions.  She's no longer my confidante when I need someone to talk to, and it's no longer my advice she looks to.  We don't buy each other little gifts for every sabbat or holiday; the Christmas ornaments I make her every year are piling up in a box in my closet, and she's moving yet again to another state.  It seems we have outgrown that friendship that made us call each other sister.  We are two completely different people now.

It is what it is, and I realize that everything changes. For every birth there is a death and rebirth.  I realize that there are so many new and wonderful people around me that I would have never become close to if we hadn't gone the directions that we both did.  I'm in a really good place, and I love my life.

However, now and again I do take the time to stop and wonder how my old friend is.  I browse her Myspace photos or check up on her blog to see where her life is taking her and what new and exciting adventures she's experiencing.  Then, after a small twinge of sadness at the thought of how close we used to be, I close the computer and go back to the present.  The past is the past, and I regret nothing.

 Beautiful Witch Sister, I wish you the best of luck in your travels!  If you ever need anything, I will always be here for you, even if it's just in spirit. Blessed Be as you go about your path!