Monday, April 21, 2008

A Little Sappiness...

I was reminded this weekend of how truly lucky I am…I got to see my friends. My best friends in the whole world. These are the girls who I met in the dorms in college…we rollerbladed down the hallway together, and almost killed ourselves and the dog while rollerblading with Dave the Golden Retriever. The girls who I partied with, pre-partied with, post-partied with (by which I mean they held my hair while I threw up). The girls I dyed my hair with, (much to the chagrin of my now ex-boyfriend), and the girls that yes, I studied with. I lived with them, or lived across the hall from them, or crashed on their couch when I didn’t want to go to class. Sometimes we made it out of our apartment building on our way to class only to stop and sit on the couch on the lawn and drink beer with the boys from apartment A1. We traded clothes and make-up, stories and opinions about our boyfriends, and laughed. We laughed a lot. Especially when talking about boys. We have been there for each other through weddings and divorces and kids. These girls now live no closer than 2 hours from me, and we are all busy, and just don’t make the time to visit each other. This was the first time in almost 2 years that we had been together. And it was great.


I also saw my other best friends in the whole world. These were the 2 girls that I met post-college. We tailgated together, worked together, talked dogs together, drank together, laughed together, ate together, e-mailed ridiculous amounts of nothingness to each other, and vented and gossiped relentlessly together. These are the girls who tell me that The Fonz is the best dog in the whole world, when I know they are just humoring me, because they think that Buck is…after all, he gives hugs. But they still humor me. We have been there for each other through weddings and divorces and college graduations and they live more than an hour from me. And we don’t see each other as much as we should, but we try. This weekend was not a happy occasion, but we damn-it, we took advantage of it, and laughed and cried and we’re better friends for it.


And as girls do, when we get together, we talk about boys. Whether we think Workaholic works too much, (the answer would be a unanimous yes), or what is the one flaw of our friend’s new boy-toy (there has to be one!!), or whether husbands should help out more around the house (ginormous unanimous yes!). We vent without worry about judgment. We laugh at each other when we cry. We can sleep in the same bed, snuggle on the couch together, and comment on each other’s boobs without concern of whether we’ve become lesbians. But even if were G, we would all still be best friends.


These girls, these 5 girls, get me. They don’t car if I get a “tone”, drop the F-bomb repeatedly in one sentence, or talk about how much I don’t like people. This isn’t to say that all the new friends I have made in the past 4 years aren’t just awesome. After all, they usually have to put up with me for 8 hours a day, listening to my endless dog talk, even though they hate dogs. Or don’t have a dog. Or are allergic to dogs. But these 5 girls are it. The friends that you know that you will be sitting in rocking chairs on your Florida vacation with when you are 65 years old. Or touring a winery in California, or gambling together in Vegas. Whatever we do together, it’ll be awesome.


So this is a message to all the boys in my dear friend’s lives…you hurt them…I’ll hurt you. Seriously. Because I was there before you, and if something happens, I’ll be there after you. But as of right now, I love you all!! And to my friends, all of my friends, I just want you to know that I appreciate you more than you will ever know. And as corny as it sounds, Pastor Steve said it best on Sunday, I am truly blessed to have you all in my life.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Gailbee:
I'll second that motion. No need to put it to a vote. That was nice of you to put Buck up their with the Fonz. As the elders in our group of friends dogs, they can be elevated to a higher level, right?! I've been in mourning since our seperation last Monday afternoon. Girlfriends are the best, and I'd spend every hour of every day with them, you... Love you babe! Adult responsibilities suck and are a lame excuse to not have fun or get together. I'm saying this to all my friends with children. Do your husband's go out and have fun, yes...do they golf, yes... So why are YOU enslaved to the children? Maybe they just don't like me?! Aghghh!