Saturday morning, a friend I hadn’t seen since 1988 was in town with her husband and four sons for a family member’s wedding. I was a little nervous about seeing her again. Our lives went in such different directions, and even though I always loved her, what if I wasn’t the person she expected me to be? What if we didn’t have anything to talk about?
A few minutes after we met up, we were riding down the escalator to the Starbucks in her hotel. She said being at an event like this (the wedding) without having control of everything was unusual for her because she’s a control freak. I kind of glanced back at her and said, “YOU?” in a tone that made it clear I remembered this about her. Then I said, “My friends say that about me now.” And she grinned and answered, “You always were.”
Five minutes later, we were drinking the same Starbucks drinks (mocha frappuccinos), catching up on family news, discussing politics (her older brothers helped shape my political views way back when), and just being with each other. Later, when the valet brought my car while she was waiting for her husband to bring their rental from the garage, she walked toward it as if she knew it was mine. I said, “Oh, there’s my car.” She said, “I was about to get in it automatically because I have the same car at home!” The only difference is that mine is one year older than hers.
Maybe our lives did go in different directions, but in all the ways that matter–much more than our choices of coffee and cars–we’re still connected. I was as comfortable as I’ve always been with her, as if it hadn’t been twenty years since our last meeting. When I mentioned that to Lindsey on Saturday night, she said, “That’s a real friend.”
Yep. Some things can’t be controlled. They just are.
In 1975.
And now.
I loved this post!!
Thank you. =)
I’m not a control freak, I’m a control enthusiast.
LOL!
Would that button be useful to you, too?
Ummm…yeah. Big time. 🙂 I read it to my husband and he made scoffing noises at me.
sweet story
Thank you. =)
Is music something you two have in common, too, or has that diverged in the last 20 years? And were both frappuccinos venti, not that I care in the slightest….
Venti, yes, you mocha frappuccino junkie. As for music, I have no idea. I don’t remember if our tastes were ever similar, but I can tell you that we shared a passion for the first two Godfather movies. We endlessly discussed the characters and watched the movies in all variations (the way they were released, the TV version with extra footage but some of the more objectionable scenes removed or altered, and the version in which the two movies were rearranged into chronological order with extra scenes and nothing omitted).