cinco de mayo bar review & friendships
when i arrived at home this evening, i checked my mailbox, as usual, and found the following envelope addressed to me:
for a minute, i thought, "hey, wait, there must be a mistake! i didn't go to law school!". and then i remembered that a while back, one of my best college friends asked if she could list me as a character reference so she could sit for the bar exam. (this is the same one who moved to L.A. last year and lost all of her belongings in a moving truck fire en route to the w. coast). i, of course, had said yes. so here it is--a character reference questionnaire that i'll gladly fill out.
right now, i suddenly feel bad for being so terrible about keeping in touch with her and the rest of my long-distance friends. i'm bad about e-mailing or calling people (esp. w/ time zone differences). and snail-mail is non-existent, which is a shame for me, the postcard collector! and i feel esp. bad that in december, i got lax about sending x-mas cards, and gave up after finishing a handful, mainly for people at work, b/c i was tired, rushed, and felt disheartened by the increasing number of impersonal holiday form-letters--you know, the ones that basicallly brag about one's family accomplishments rather than conveying personalized, warm holiday wishes to the recipient. {note to self: start early this year--i.e. dec 1st--and don't let those form-letters get you down}. but WHOA, i'm on a tangent, so more on those letters another time!
SO...everyone's geographically scattered, and we're so busy with our lives that it's hard to stay in touch. i really miss my far-away friends this evening. but it's comforting to know that many of my pals are the kind with whom i can go for ages w/o talking or e-mailing or seeing each other, but when do, we don't have to awkwardly search for stuff to say. (in fact, the conversations never run dry!). it's like no time has passed between us, and we can always pick up where we left off. that's remarkable b/c it's so easy to drift apart over time. you turn into strangers if you don't put forth the effort. sure, all friendships and relationshps are 2-way streets that take work and cultivaton. yeah, i'm often guilty of not making enough effort, so it's nice to know there are some friendships that, for whatever rhyme or reason, thrive where others might fade. you know? yeah. that makes me feel really good. i am blessed. everyone needs a couple of friends like that, and i hope you have some, too.
