Best of Friends

Right now, I have 3 girl friends that I consider 'my best'. :) Mandy and Heather, sadly, this post is not about you. This one is about my Angie. :)


Angie and I met in 4th grade - that's right people. We've been friends since we were 10ish. We've gone times without 'playing' with each other on a regular basis. We've gone in different directions in life but we've always managed to end up back together. She was even my Maid of Honor at my wedding (and other than family, the only one I even see anymore).

Currently, Angie and I 'play' about once a week or at least every other week. Jeremiah even affectionately calls her his "Every Other Weekend Wife" because (her hubby) TJ works every other weekend, which means she comes to our house. :) Her kids are basically the same ages as my kids. We've gone to each other's baby showers. We've been there for each other when our when babies are sick. We've vented about life's frustrations (in detail!) to each other.

We laugh. We cry. We love.

So why am I suddenly all mushy about my Angie? TJ (currently an RN) has been accepted to Med School - IN FLORIDA!!! They are trying to sell their house and their rental property so that they can move. TO FLORIDA. That's a 4 hour *expensive* flight that I don't have money to take. And I don't even want to think about how far of a drive that is. :(

Angie and I have this thing of taking middle of the night trips to movies - sans kids and hubby's. It's our time. We've also got this weird holding hands at movies thing - to comfort at sad scenes, hang on to for scary scenes or to convey our excitement at happy scenes. We went to a movie a few weeks ago and in the middle of it, I started to cry. It wasn't even a sad scene. I just realized that there aren't going to be many more middle of the night movie trips with my Angie for at least 3 years. And I cried. It went basically unnoticed, but at the end, when I told Angie that I had been crying because I realized it was coming to the end of our time together, she started bawling. And we both sat there and cried and held each other's hands and hugged for about 15 minutes because we're losing our best friends to distance. We ended up talking to each other for an extra 2 hours after the movie was over about our friendship and our lives and how we'd be okay. How there will be great phone conversations. How there will be at least a trip a year where she will come back 'home' and we'll go out. About how the family we choose is just as important as the family we are born into.

I'm sad to see her go - more than I can adequately express here. I know I'll be okay because I have other friends / family to keep me busy that are just as awesome as my Angie. I know she'll be okay because she's just awesome that way. She can make friends SO easily and she has a great husband who will show her unwavering love. But I'm going to miss her.

I'm going to miss having her around every other weekend. I'm going to miss having her only a 15 minute drive away. I'm going to miss holding her hand at movies. I'm going to miss taking cheesy pictures with her. I'm going to miss her amazing memory that calls me on stupid things I did as a teenager. I'm going to miss the teasing that her and Jeremiah get into every other weekend. I'm going to miss her closeness. I'm going to miss her honesty.

But we'll be okay.
Somehow.
Right? :(

I love you, my Angie.