Ok, so I am still blogging everyday, but I don’t have energy to find a picture of my friends. For that, you can go to my Facebook page (Ellen Smith Alden) and friend me, and then you can see all my friends.
Facebook has been awesome for me. I have found friends from middle school (we called it Jr. High), high school – all the way from California, a good friend from high school who lived in my neighborhood in gorgeous California somehow made it to about 3 miles away from me here in Podunk, Virginia (but won’t meet me for coffeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee). Trust me, Ruth, I am so fat and old that I would not be shocked or appalled at any appearance, but to reconnect and heal old wounds (not from you) from those years would really help me come full circle. Finding my friend from Kemps Landing was also awesome as we are both teachers. Since I went to 11 different schools, and moved quite a bit, long term friendships were hard to form, and those short term ones that were memorable are special to me.
On friendship in general, I am not a really good friend in action. I think about my friends a lot. I worry, for example about Staci and Marie, who are facing a tough life crisis. I think about them everyday, but I don’t really DO anything. Doro, for example, who I admire and aspire to be more like, I think of everyday, but don’t call as I should because I am so wrapped up in and exhausted from my own life, and in the summer such a hermit…but it doesn’t mean I value it any less. Robyn, who I miss dearly but whose lack of internet presence, and whose political views have offended me, I have lost touch sort of. Wendy, whose Christmas card I wrote fell behind Scott’s desk and I didn’t find until June, and who will probably not send me her beautiful holiday letter/picture/card anymore, I am sad, she was such a good buddy in college. It is just now this second that I realized that I am just like my daughter (errr vice versa) We are ONE PERSON AT A TIME people.
So often I complained about how Katie could only have one person in her life at a time, and it hurt when you were not that ONE. REVELATION! I figured out where she got that.
On friendship, there really are only two people who are the rock solid best. My mom, and Scott. Scott will understand that if it came down to choosing between those two, he would be second, and that is perfectly fine. I am lucky to still have my mom, and to have a close friendship with, although I know I annoy her with my dinnertime phone calls. If I could boil down all my life wishes, the travel, the experiences, the fun, the food, the wine, everything, I would boil it all down to this: My life wish is that my friendship with my mom is duplicated in a friendship with my daughter who I love and cherish dearly. I am fiercely proud of my daughter, and I am on a mission to heal the wounds of the past and move into something closer to what I have with my mom. My mom and I were able to heal from terrible let-downs and hurts and I am hoping for that same thing.
So, that is a “picture” of my friends.
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