One is Silver...Part One

There's that song,"Make new friends but keep the old, one is silver and the other is gold". We used to sing that at camp and then my kids sang it at preschool. It's a sweet song and very, very true.

We went to a birthday party tonight at my friends house. I have known her and her husband for almost 17 years. For some people, this is not a huge feat. For me, this friendship is amazing. While some people collect and keep friends for years and years, I, typically, do not. I am not friends with old boyfriends, do not keep in contact with high school or college friends, am terrible at maintaining former work bonds and just generally suck at being a friend. It's amazing to me that I have friends as I can be extremely flaky, especially when dating (my friendships have fared better since I got married) as the old saying "boyfriends come and go but your girl friends are forever" was lost on me, except for the boyfriends come and go part.

And, tonight I spent time with two people who have known me what seems like forever. We used to watch X-files on Sunday and eat Greek food whenever we felt like it. We'd clean out our drawers and watch Party of 5 while talking on the phone. We traveled together, shopped at IKEA, they knew all my boyfriends, liked some of them, hated some others. They helped me move in, move out, move on, and picked up the pieces when I couldn't seem to. We met at work, and stayed friends because we did. We got married two weeks apart in 1999 and in 2000 our boys were born just 4 weeks apart. I think it's awesome that I have friends like this that I can say - "hey, remember when..." and they can say "yeah".

Some might say I'm silly. Everyone has those in their lives who know them and love them anyway. I am not one of those people. I am terrified of my worlds colliding and take extreme measures to ensure that these worlds stay far far apart. That means that I don't have a lot of close friends that I keep. I'm also an only child. I play well by myself. I have a hard time sharing. Coincidentally, my closest friends up until recently, have also been only children. I wonder what that means...

So, this friendship is special to me. And, precious. We don't see each other as often as we used to and I'm guilty of not being better at keeping in touch. But, when we do see each other, it's easy and comforting and I appreciate my old friends.

Now, the verse goes, "make new friends..." and I have! Really! But that's another post. Shortly, or realistically, a while from now.