Nothing like an old friend

Many of you that would be reading this know that I had a little "party" tonight. This was one of those parties that you host where someone demonstrates and shows a product. I am normally not a person who hosts these parties, however this stuff is really awesome and I thought that some of my friends and family members would enjoy it. So, I had a party. There were about 12 people that came over. Among those people that came over, was an old friend of mine named Sarah. After the party I started thinking about old friends. It is amazing to me how many friends that I have lost contact with. Because Jeff and Adam were not home yet and the house was quiet, I just took some time to think about those people and wonder what they are doing. Thankfully, Sarah is one of those friends who I had lost contact with but have recently been reacquainted with.

The history: Sarah and I used to work together during high school. She was a grade a head of me. We probably never would have become friends had we not worked together. We became really good friends at work and soon started hanging out with each other outside of work. We got together almost every weekend. Our supervisors and co-workers would always say that we looked like sisters and they would always get our names mixed up. I was Sarah and Sarah was Carrie. We had lots of fun during those late nights at work when the store was empty and no supervisors were around. I can recall one evening during the holiday season. The store stayed open late and there were no customers anywhere. The holiday season was the only time that the store would play music overhead, and of course it was Christmas music. So the only thing that Sarah and I could think to do to have fun was to dance to Mariah Carey's Christmas song "All I Want For Christmas." I am sure that we looked like the biggest dorks if anyone saw us, but we didn't really care that much. Anyway, we became good friends. But then life happened and some how Sarah and I lost touch. We would occasionally bump into each other at a restaurant or something, but we never really became "friends" again.

A couple of years ago, I started working at the place where I am now and through a business connection with Sarah's work place, we saw each other one day. We exchanged email addresses, phone numbers, etc. I never called her and she never called me. We would see each other very occasionally through our work places and it was always the same thing: "We should get together." "We should do lunch someday." So, over the next few years, we emailed back and forth a few times. Again, we would always end the email with the "lunch someday," "call me when you are free," "we really need to get together" stuff. Finally a few months ago, one of us (I really can't remember if it was her or me) said in an email that we just had to pick a date to get together because if we never pick a date it will never happen. We picked a date for the next Saturday for lunch. I will admit that at first, I was a little hesitant. I wondered "Will this be weird? We haven't seen/talked to each other for so long. What will we talk about?". I must say that I could not have been more wrong about the whole awkwardness thing. Sarah and I had so much to talk about. After lunch we even went shopping together. We had such a wonderful time. We decided at that point to schedule another lunch for the next month. So this last weekend, we went to lunch and then went to a movie. Next month we have plans to get together with our kids. Hopefully the weather will be nice and we can go to the park and have a picnic.

Basically, what I want to say is that an old friend is probably the best gift that can be given to you. If there is that one friend who you always think about, but never call or contact - call them and schedule something! If you do not actually schedule a lunch or meeting, you will not do it. It took Sarah and me 2 years of going back and forth about saying we need to get together before we actually did it. It just makes me sad to think that I had this great friend out there that I let just slip away. I would have loved for her to be involved in my life in the past few years. She didn't come to my wedding, my baby shower, or visit me in the hospital when I had Adam. How I would have loved to have her with me during these times. And I would have loved to have been with her during her special times. What I know now though is that because Sarah is back in my life as a friend, I plan to keep it that way. I hope everyone who reads this has their "Sarah" who they can become friends with again.