Eden

I've never told you about my oldest friend, and that's a pity.

My mom and her mom were part of the same running crew, so we knew each other, and were apparently fond of each other, when we were both in diapers. The day I was born she was celebrating her 2nd birthday, giving us both the same birthday of September 19th.

We were kids together, and if my yenta mother's stories are any guide, we were close as kids.  I remember enjoying spending time with her, that's for sure.

When we were still young my mom's friend divorced her husband, Eden's dad, and moved to Arizona.  For eight years or so Eden existed in my life only as pleasant fragments of memory.

When I was a sophomore in high school Eden came back to live with her dad; she had a few family issues out west, and she also brought with her a tumor as big as a volleyball that she needed to have removed and wanted to do it at a Boston hospital. And so she spent her senior year back in Boston, and we reconnected and picked up exactly where we left off when I was 7.

She liked movies; we went to the movies a lot.  And she dragged me to some all-time stinkaroos.  Anyone remember Xanadu?  Or the reunion of Travolta and Newton-John in Two of a Kind? Or how about that sterling Sly Stallone/Dolly Parton matchup called Rhinestone? Yeah, it was exactly as bad as it sounds.  However it was she who similarly dragged me to The Princess Bride, which remains one of my favorite movies.

We had coffee and smoked cigarettes at Denny's; we shared secrets; we helped each other through adolescence. When her boyfriend broke her heart, she called me. When my drama queen girlfriend was tearing my heart out, I called her.

We were tight.

She is the most incredibly optimistic person I've ever met in my life.  And with the shitty things that have happened to her, she would have been completely justified in turning into a cynical douchebag, hating the world and all the miserable bastards who crawl upon it. But instead she chose a positive path and that positivity just oozes out of every inch of her.  For years it was she I turned to when all around was dark and I needed a little uplifting.

I held the chupa at her wedding; gave the bride's toast, in fact. I killed, if anyone's wondering. Had 'em rolling in the aisles. This all despite the fact that just about a week earlier, I had broken my wrists and gave said toast with casts on both my arms.

But, you know how it is; life gets in the way sometimes. She went to college a million miles away, when transatlantic phone rates were ridiculously expensive, then went back to Arizona and started a family.  I got married, got a job, and was doing my own thing.  We'd talk a few times a year, wish each other happy birthday on the same day, and that was about it.

Drift, drift, drift, and before you know it, she was over the horizon.

But I just talked to her - out of the blue she reached out to me on the Eff Bee and I called her. And with no god as my judge it was like we last spoke yesterday.  We spoke for the better part of an hour and at the end of that I realized just how much I've missed her. I also noted with a little shock and a little embarrassment that her oldest child is going off to college and I haven't met any of them. And that has to change.

So I think, if I can get this through Tootsie, I'm going to go see her the next time there's a blogger meet-up in Vegas, and kill two birds with one stone.  Because I do want to meet all you happy assholes in person, I really do; you occupy a bigger piece of me than you might think. And I need to see Eden again, to cajole her into maybe smoking a little reefer for old times' sake, to find some shitty diner and drink bad coffee for six hours - and maybe once again be a little bit bigger part of her life than I am now.

I want my friend back, and this is something I think I'm going to have to do. So keep me in the loop for the next time, because now I've got plans to make.

Because I miss my friend, and that can't continue.

Eden and her brother Jason, whom I also knew when, and with whom I've had a lot of laughs