Pirates and Friendship

Story #1:

Shawn is currently at an eye surgeon having a sty removed. He got a sty on his bottom eyelid that wouldn't go away. He went to the eye doctor and he gave him medication. That didn't help and the sty got bigger, so the doctor gave him stronger medication. That didn't help and now the sty is huge, so he's headed over to the eye surgeon to have it removed.

The people who work at Shawn's pharmacy are hillarious and they've been making pirate jokes for a few days, because he may have a patch on his eye for a day or so while his eye heals. He's taking the day off work, but I can't wait for him to go in tomorrow because it sounds like they have quite a pirate celebration for him when he gets back. Larry (our Korean friend and Shawn's pharmacy tech) was at our house last night and we had a really good time coming up with pirate names for Shawn. I think we thought it was a lot funnier than Shawn did. :)

Oh, and speaking of Larry, he took us on a field trip last night to an Asian market and we had so much FUN! He's been coming over and helping me with my Korean and doing other fun Korean related thing with us and it's been awesome! We've really had a good time with him. Last night we wandered around the Asian market and he pointed out all sorts of different Asian foods and we bought some Asian candy and then he came back to our house and we watched Heroes and ate pizza. And then we came up with pirate names for Shawn until we laughed so hard we cried. Good times at our house last night. :)

Ok, so now on to story #2.

Several years ago we were new in town, Josh was a baby, we had just moved in to our new home and we didn't know many people in the neighborhood. Then I met a girl who was also new in town, had a baby Josh's age, had just moved into the same neighborhood and even had the same home floorplan that I had. It was the perfect recipe for a friendship!

Let me just say that it can be hard to be friends with me. I'm very much a homebody for one thing. I enjoy being out when I'm out, but I'm perfectly content being home, to the extent that sometimes I forget to GO out. My friends have been known to call me on the phone and ask me if I'm still alive when they haven't seen or heard from me in a few weeks. I enjoy my friends, I enjoy a good girls night out and I enjoy chatting on the phone with friends. I'm just really bad at being the one to initiate those things. Sometimes my friends will call me and tell me that they're coming to my house for girls night. They know they pretty much have to plan it if its going to happen.

It's a flaw that I have that I know I need to work on. It's something I don't like about myself. I need to learn to be more social and I need to learn to be the one who picks up the phone and makes the call.

So anyway, I met the girl in my neighborhood with the same house as me, a son Josh's age and we clicked like I don't normally click with people. Every now and then you meet someone who you can't imagine that you haven't known all your life. Those people are rare and it's quite a gift when you meet one. Soon our kids were going to preschool together, we had playdates and girls nights and spent lots of fun times together.

But the years have gone by, we both have more kids now, busy lives, and we've both moved and no longer live in the cute little houses we once bonded over. Now we live on opposite sides of the city.

I mean to call, I want to call, I intend to go visit, and I miss my friend. Somehow life just keeps getting in the way and I don't pick up the phone. Our phone calls got less frequent and eventually stopped.

So today unusual circumstances presented themselves that put me on the other side of the city right in my friends neighborhood so I stopped by to say hello.

There are a few people in my life who I can go years without seeing and then when I finally do see them again we can pick up the conversation like we just talked yesterday and she's one of those people. When you meet one of those people you don't let them go!

Anyway, I came home from an enjoyable afternoon of catching up with my friend and I gave myself a good talking to for letting so much time go by. I can give my list of excuses about why it's been so long, but they're not good ones.

So I'm deleriously happy to be back in contact with my friend but I'm kicking myself for the time we missed. I vow to start being a better friend. I vow to start planning the girls nights instead of waiting for someone to plan them for me! Good friends are too important to lose.