Seeing old friends

"Make new friends, but keep the old; one is silver and the other is gold." The above is a line from a traditional Girl Scout song written by Susan J. Ellis. To this day, it is the only thing that I consiously remember about being in Mrs. Blumer's kindergarden class (besides sitting on the colored block carpeting), and is one of the philosophies that I still live by. Keeping up with old friends takes work. Life is busy, work days are long, and ultimately people change. It is amazing how easy it is to drift apart from your childhood friends while you are in your twenties, as everyone is heading their own directions and building their own lives, which often includes new love interests and different circles of casual friends. Long gone are the days of calling your best buddy at the crack of dawn so you can hang around and just be bored together. I remember being so bored with some of my best friends, that we would watch TRL together over the phone, take long walks to the gas station just to buy a pop, and make up songs and dances about being "so, insanely bored". That is true friendship. I miss those days. The past few days have been spent (working, of course, and) catching up with old friends. The first, believe it or not, were my grandparents. Remember those kind, sweet people who love you unconditionally, even though you were fairly recently some bratty, spoiled teenager that acted like you didn't care much whether you only saw them for a few hours on holidays? They are great people, and I need to make more time for them. On Friday I went out to lunch with my "Papa" and even took him to my office to show him my "cube". He sure got a kick out of that. I asked him a lot of questions about his past that I realized I had never really asked him before. It was really nice to hear his story. On Sunday I invited the Park grandparents over for brunch. It was just them & me, and while we were chatting over eggs & coffee I realized that we had never spent any alone time together. My grandma loved seeing the new Mums I bought for our patio and even plucked a flower to take home and press into her diary. How cute. She appreciated the time we spent together so much that I received a letter from her in the mail yeserday thanking me again and again for the lovely time. It made me really sad that I had never made that time for her before. On Monday I had happy hour with my friend Sue who was in town from Boston, followed by dinner with my friend Kim who was in town from Columbus. And tonight, I was able to grab a late night drink with a work friend who recently moved Florida. It was so great to catch up and see each one of them, and not to mention great to know there are a few potential "vacation spots" in the near future :) Staying in touch takes work, but it is worth it. I hope to never let an old friend be forgotten, as every person who has come into my life has made an impact on the person I am today. I am so lucky to have the great friendships that I do. Goodnight! ...if you're wondering, my "dreaded meeting" last week went great. THANK GOD IT'S OVER!!