BFF

My oldest and dearest friend A. was in town this week visiting her family. She is hardly ever in town anymore (busy with work, remodeling house, etc) and lives too far away for me to jump in a car any old weekend and visit. It sucks.

We've known each other since middle school, but as members of different girl cliques, we weren't really friends. I (of course) was part of the less materialistic and cooler girl clique along with S., my other bff. A. and I bonded while enduring tortuous 10th grade geometry with the borderline pervert Mr. M. (seriously, how do people like him become high school teachers? Everybody has one or two or three in their high school experience who are so inappropriate.) Along with S. and another girl, we became invincible through 11th grade American History and yearbook, honing our cattiness on lame-ass students and teachers and exploring Juarez nightclubs.

Our friendship goes much farther than high school, into UTEP and personal crises of the early twenty-somethings. She can frustrate me like no other, yet at the same time, I know she's always on my side even during my most irrational moments. I love her visits. The rare times A., S., and I get together are truly golden moments, too. Never do I feel more understood or can be as open as with them (besides G., but that's a different relationship). I hope one day we get to live near one another; maybe El Paso will lure us back...

I've heard that the friendships you make in your 30's are never quite like friendships made earlier. I wonder if that's true.

P.S. Have you all rushed out to get your copy of March? While you're at it, pick up The Good Life by Jay McInerney. It's about how traumatic events like 9/11 make people reevaluate their lives, but not always follow through. Really good.