The Countdown Begins...

The countdown to Kim and Mike's wedding is on. Tents are being erected, food is being brought in, dresses are being tried on... It's about to be game time people. I should write about that tonight, everything surrounding the wedding, but I'm just too tired. I only got three hours of sleep last night (thanks to my revolutionary coffee blend that I made up myself thankyouverymuch) and I've been going all day and I'm exhausted. So I'll write about it tomorrow after the rehearsal dinner. I'm sure there will be plenty to divulge. Tonight, Kim and I were riding in the car, doing nothing special really - and somehow ten years of friendship just whizzed through my mind. Just like that. We haven't had that much time lately to hang out. And yet, when we do - we are just as we always have been. It doesn't matter how busy we get, how much we change or even - as the past has shown us - how angry we get at each other. We are the kind of friends who can talk about nothing - and enjoy it. We can do nothing - and have fun. We can talk quickly - and get just what we needed from the conversation. Of course there are times when Kim talks so much I just want to chew my own ear off...and I'm sure there are times when I talk or laugh so loud she goes deaf for a few minutes...but it doesn't really matter. I guess I just felt...reminded today. Of moments here and there that she and I have shared that I really, truly have no words for. How to you describe how much you love just a moment? Like the time she stood up and announced in the middle of a sales meeting that I had gotten a poem published. Or the time she got drunk and rolled right off the couch with a thud at 4 o'clock in the morning. There was the time we were left alone at her house and we thought a burglar was trying to get in and it turned out to be only a raccoon. Or the time she hit a raccoon. There were nights we sat outside on the street and smoked cigarettes at 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning when she should have been working. So many more that make up ten years of a hell of a lot of fun, some times that were not so fun, and some times we'll never forget. I stare at this blank wedding card and I don't even know what to write in it. There's just so much. And this past year...so much that has gone on with her that I haven't even been around to see. So much of her life I feel I've missed out on, through no real fault...but my own. My favorite memory of all, is the day I came back from a trip to New York and I was training new hires at work. When she came in she came up behind me and looped her arm around my neck and said, "My friend's back! I missed you!" As the countdown begins I realize...I've missed her too.