Friends are Friends Forever

I've not been doing much writing lately. It seems every time I think to myself, I think I'll write a post about this! or that! by the time I have time to write, it has completely escaped my brain.

Today, I'm writing as I'm thinking about My Friends.

I've never been one to have a lot of friends. In high school, there were two or three girls I ran around with all the time, and a few guys I would call friends, but were really more like ex's made into friends. I was not of the 90210-type cliques. After moving away from my home town, I lived in Nashville, TN for several years. There, I ran around with several guy-friends, whom I'd met through a guy I was dating when I first moved. After he and I broke up, I remained friends with these guys, whom I never dated, and we'd hang out, go see bands, play frisbee golf, etc. After moving away from Tennessee, I haven't really been in touch with any of them. I also had a couple girlfriends I met at my job in TN, but they were married, so we didn't do too much hanging out. I've also lost touch with them. When I moved to northern Illinois, after leaving Tennessee, I got reacquainted with my first cousin whom I'd only seen a handful of times during my formative years. She and I are a year apart, and became very close during the year and a half I lived up there. Soon after I left northern Illinois, she got married, and now has two children. She and I rarely talk. I had also become very good friends with a girl who grew up with my cousin, who has also since gotten married, and with whom I've lost touch. We email from time to time, but don't really catch up on a regular basis.

I used to be very good at keeping in touch with people. If I hadn't heard from someone in a long time, I would call them out of the blue and surprise them. Although irritating at times, for feeling like I was always the one trying to keep the friendship alive, I always enjoyed talking for a couple (few?) hours and sharing what was happening in our respective lives.

Since I've been here (for seven, no OMG! almost eight years), I've made a handful of friends with whom I have lunch with on a regular basis. I don't do much partying or hanging out anymore, but still I feel like I don't do enough to keep the friendships alive. The friends who live near me aren't the problem, it's those that I've let fall by the wayside that is bugging me up inside.

I never call my cousin, or my other friend from up north. She just got promoted to Vice President of her company, and I didn't even know it! The only reason I do is because I got an email-forward from her and her signature said she was the VP! OMG! When did that happen?! I'm so far behind! My cousin has repeatedly asked me to come up and spend time with them, but I never make the time for it. She and her husband have moved at least twice since the last time I saw them. Pitiful. Just pitiful.

I must do a better job of utilizing the telephone, or email even. I take time out to read blogs half the day, I should certainly be able to make time to send those I truly care about an email.