A Friend is Worth Their Weight in Gold

We all know that friends are valuable and to have one true friend who is there with you through the thick and thin of it all is worth more than 10 mediocre sometimes there, sometimes not there for you friends. I am lucky to have many great friends who I have know for years, even decades. Yes, DECADES! Can you believe it? My longest known good friend is H (hi H!) and I have known her since the 4th grade, when I was like 8 years old. That means we've been friends for 21 years people. Wow, I still shock myself when I really think about it. We've been through a lot together. Lots of fun times along with a lot of blue times. We've picked each other up during those blue periods and I know I can count on her and C (Hi C!) should I ever need anything. I've know C since high school...that makes 15 years of friendship. Crazy, huh!?

So last night, after my date with Guy #1, I was standing at the bus stop waiting for the 5 wondering how I was going to waste 20 minutes since I JUST missed the bus. I sat down, flipped though my contacts on my handy dandy cell phone and see the name of a friend I haven't talked to in over a year...MB. MB lives in North Hollywood. Now, we all go through periods of time when you drop off the face of the earth and don't talk to someone and the next thing you know, months have passed by. What the?? I left messages for MB way back when when he was just starting to date this girl and all I kept hearing was "Val, it's love...I'm serious this time". OK, MB...best of luck to you because I know that the road and journey to love can be a difficult one. I left messages for MB and never heard back so I took it as a loss for the time being and figured I'd try some other time. Why do people always drop their friends for the new guy or girl they are seeing?? Friends are worth their weight in gold people! Don't forget that...

So I give it a shot....ring...ring..."hello?".

Me: "hello."

MB: "Oh my god!"

Me: "Dude, I have left you like 50 kabillion messages and you never called me back!"
(sidenote: I don't even need to say it's me...my voice is that recognizable...sad but true)

MB: "That was like a year ago! Plus, I lost my cell phone with all my numbers, I thought you'd call me. You haven't called me in over a year!"

I, of course, start feeling guilty since I was raised Catholic and guilt is something they inject in you at birth so that when you're mother calls to tell you you don't visit enough, you're scrambling to get over there to not upset her. Damn guilt...I will defeat it someday! I feel bad that I really did let a year go by without trying again.

But we soon get over it and there is me, pacing with my cell phone at the bus stop, laughing, gesturing, lots of "oh no!" and "oh my god" and "I miss you" being said and catching up and reminiscing. I must have looked like a crazy person! But it was the happiest I had been all day. Sorry Guy #1...it is the truth. We talked for an hour about what has happened in the past year, what our old college mates are doing, upcoming vacations. And it ends up he is going to Puerto Vallarta at the end of May to celebrate his 30th! C and I are going in November. Puerto Vallarta is fabulous! Now we are trying to figure out when he can come up to visit me and I (and maybe C...C? You wanna go?) can go down to visit.

But there was one thing that stuck with me from that conversation. I was talking about all the moves MB had made over the 12 years we have been friends. We met in college in San Francisco and he left before graduation to move down to North Hollywood, than Dallas, than back to North Hollywood. He would move without telling me! I can't even remember how I even tracked him down...a birthday card I sent? An email? I have a really bad memory. Anyways, despite the moves, I would always "track him down". And he said, "Val, despite everything, you always managed to track me down. You're a totally great friend." Thanks MB...now you owe me $200 from all those quarters you borrowed during college to play Street Fighter in the arcade. Pay up dammit! That's why I've been tracking you down! You owe me! haha I'm totally kidding!

I'm just so glad that we connected. Anyone going to North Hollywood? I need a ride...