Missing you

I just got a roll of film developed today that had been sitting around in its little black canister, ready to share its stories with the world, for about a year. Okay, that's a little dramatic, but anyway, it was an old roll, and I really hadn't the foggiest idea what might be on it.

For the most part, it was photos of my one-eyed cat Jack, back when he was sweet and cute, and before I moved to Charlotte, and he turned mean and crazy, then ran away. Also a bunch of photos of my brother's graduation last May.

But in the middle of the roll were three photos of us girls, from a year ago last March, when everyone got together to plan a special night out for Mandy and I, to celebrate our birthdays. So I decided to email that photo to Kevin (sweet Pittsburgh guy) so he could "meet" some of my friends. In the email, I put a short little description of everyone, and while I was writing that and thinking about how to describe all of you, I looked up on my wall and saw a picture of us from the mountain house.

We all looked so happy--like the last thing on our minds was the "devil paper"--and thinking about that crazy trip (Shavonne's friend Jessica getting her car stuck, us chasing down the tow truck driver, Tina Turner impressions, pole dancing with the bannister, etc.) made me miss you all so much.

Tash sent me a picture of her and I from my goodbye party last year, so I emailed her last week to thank her. What I said to her about our friendship, and what she said in her reply echoed the same sentiment--all the headaches and heartaches of working where we all do/did, all the assholes we dealt with and crap we put up with, were all worth it. If I could go back to the months before graduating from Wingate, and have the option of waiting just a little longer for a better job offer, or going for the interview at that big paper in Virginia after I accepted the job in S.C., I wouldn't change a thing.

If I did, I would have missed out on some very special friends. I heart you all.