Writers' Workshop

. . .with Mama Kat.  

Prompt of Choice: Are you still friends with your high school friends?  Describe them.

I collect friends where ever I go.  And while I still consider them all my friends, I am terrible about keeping in touch on a regular basis.  But a really good friend is the kind you can call after a year of silence and still feel connected to.  There are only a few friends from high school I stay in touch with.  

Angel, lives in Tennessee and I read  her blog on a regular basis.

Doug, my good friend/first "real" boyfriend, is a seminary teacher in Idaho.

And Sara, my other half since birth, lives in California with her surfing, filming husband and three adorable kids.

I have known Sara so long that she came to the hospital when I was born.  She was two weeks old.  Our mothers were friends and we were practically like cousins.  Sara even calls my mother aunt Jane.  We lived at each others houses until we got married and both moved out of state.

Over the years we had plenty of adventures.

My mother was a seamstress, so as small children we were dressed in matching originals as often as not.  As teenagers our sense of fashion diverged, but our friendship did not.

We put a lot of miles on her little yellow Toyota truck, that we fondly called the yellow submarine-- once getting stranded at the Big Bun.  She assured me she knew what to do , and after banging on the engine with a wrench the problem was solved!  She taught me how to drive stick shift in that truck and introduced me to great 80's music--which she made mix tapes of and played in the truck stereo.  Bands like Depeche Mode, the Cure, The Smiths, U2, Belly, Yaz, and the Petshop Boys--and so many more.

 

And when we weren't laughing at ourselves we were laughing at others.  We had a running joke that her mother was having an affair with the Schwan's man, due to his frequent visits.  Which I was grateful for--we didn't get push pops and the like at our house.  But on one memorable occasion while we joked, loudly, about the truck out front, we failed to realize he was standing within hearing--much to her mother's chagrin.  She had to out and face the man after all!

But aside from all the fun we had quoting Drop Dead Fred, Princess Bride, and Monty Python, she taught me some important things about friendship and loyalty.  I always admired her ability to think before she spoke and I grew to appreciate her love of organization.  

She was a big city girl in a small town and I admired her independence and her fashion sense. She was lucky enough to go to Salt Lake City for school shopping at the Gap and she owned a pair of burgundy Doc Martins, that I envied.  

Over the years we often had separate friends, and I think the only class we ever shared (apart from first grade) was German, but we always had each other outside of school.

We were and still are very different, but I think that is why it all works so well.  In the past twelve years we have only lived in the same state two of those years, and we speak sporadically, but I know if I pick up the phone and call her today we will find things to laugh about still. Because some things never change, and our friendship is one of them.

And Sara, as soon as you are ready to move to Washington, I will gladly go house hunting with you.  Just say the word.