I went to the beach last Saturday with Jamie and Elizabeth. I know. Took me long enough to write about it. Give me a break, I went to the Emergency Room this week, so I’m behind on the blog.
I’ve known Jamie since middle school, and we were in the same home room all throughout high school (Patterson, Peck). I think it was really around band camp our sophomore year that we started to be closer friends than just two guys who hung out with the same relatively large group. I’ve known Elizabeth since the ninth grade (I think. She probably remembers me from River Road and I’ll get in trouble for this). We definitely didn’t hang out in high school, and I don’t know when it was for her with me, but I can pinpoint exactly the time when my respect and appreciation for her skyrocketed (which I’m not writing about because it’s unrelated to the overall point), and I think of her as a really close friend now.
If I sit and think of it, I go through the evolution of friendships with everyone I know, particularly the friends with whom I’m the closest. Whether it’s the B.R.O.s (new and old), the band geeks, the girls, or any other group or individual, friendships don’t just happen, they grow out of shared time, personalities (that can mesh, balance, or totally clash at different times), and experiences good and bad.
Coming back to Elizabeth City after a day of putt-put, tanning, and swimming was hilarious. The three of us just laughed pretty much the entire way home about the super-loud speaker at Sonic and our super-bored waiter at Outback. I even said at one point, “We couldn’t have done this with anyone else and had it be this funny.” And because of our history and our humor, it wouldn’t have been.
I remember another instance, at Mike’s house one Christmas break. Billy and James walked in, and we hadn’t seen either of them for months. My hair was really long and I had a goatee at the time, and Billy’s first words upon entering the house and seeing me were, “Dan! Looking haggard!” James, behind him, laughed hysterically, if not a little nervously. Anyone else saying that to someone could probably expect to offend the haggard-looking person in question, but I laughed and gave him a hug, knowing exactly what he meant, and how many stories and inside jokes were involved in those three words and his instant reaction.
There’s lots of silly sayings about friends that go on bumper stickers or chain letters or any number of other ridiculous places. You know like the one from that facebook app that says “I have the kind of friends that if my house were burning down, they’d be there roasting marshmallows and flirting with the hot firemen,” or something about how your real friends just walk in without knocking and pour themselves a drink from the fridge (which sounds like me at the Turner house, whether Mike or anyone else is there or not). And while those are mostly really cheesy, some of them hit pretty close to home.
I have the kind of friends that drag me out of bed at 10:30 (as they tell me what an “old man” I am to be in bed at 10:30) to go do nothing more productive than play Halo or drive to 7/11. The kind of friends who wouldn’t ever put an umbrella in someone’s chimney, but still think it’s hilarious. The kind of friends that swim to the channel marker in the river at 5:00 am and jump off it illegally. The kind of friends who will still drive to the I.H.O.P. in Virginia just for kicks, even though we have one in town now. The kind of friends that talk about… digestion… on a “mission trip” and about salvation in a bar.
The kind of friends who actually read my blog. Thanks.
