aya's visit to the u.s. really made me appreciate our friendship even more. we had more than 4 years to catch up on, but we somehow managed to get right back where we were in just a few short days. paul was amazed that two people who are so alike can be such good friends, but i think we're like two sides of the same coin. seemingly like two parts of a whole, yet totally different. you know. yin and yang... fred and ginger... laverne and shirley.
i admit, there are so many things in which we're similar. we've always been that way. we start mimicking each other's speech patterns, walk patterns, even sleep patterns... but i've also noticed where we've grown individually. i think we can't help but be influenced by the world around us. i'm definitely more the wear-a-suit-to-work-i-shop-at-the-gap-american while she's the i-still-have-a-european-flair-but-i-am-oh-so-japanese aura about her. when she called me on the phone the first day she was in the states, i couldn't ignore the distinctly japanese cadence in her voice. but it made the visit that much more fun. we got to find out how we'd changed, just as we reveled in the fact that in some ways, we didn't change at all.
of course, she and paul got along famously. not that i really expected anything less. and i loved spending time with a certain someone from her past as well.
maybe we're ready to move onto the next phase of our friendship and let people in on our ridiculously exclusively bond.
is this weird? paul says i sound like i'm talking about my lover... but what's more valuable (other than your family and your husband/life partner) than your best friends?
why not treat it like a "relationship"? it requires that much love. that much nurturing. that much effort.
anyway... now i'm just babbling.
it was hard to see her go again. i'd almost forgotten how much i missed her. i've said it before, but good girlfriends are such a rarity. i treasure each and every one of them. and every good girlfriend i have, i think, fills a very different need. so not having her around always left an empty space... and i'm afraid i'll probably feel it all over again for the next year until i see her again. i'm afraid i'll be blue for a while. it's like senior year all over again. yikes.
okay. late night. better stop writing or i'll just spiral down a very depressing road. but that's not what i'm feeling at all about her trip. i'm very grateful for our chance to catch up. to recapture some of that past magic. to start creating some new moments. i'll be looking forward to our next reunion.
