Monday, February 25, 2008

the way back weekend

lately, i've been making an effort to retrace my roots (and i speak not just of my hair) and find people i've lost. it's been a little easier than you'd think, what with so many social and professional networking sites popping up from here to there.

and it was through one of those sites where i found my long lost friend, whom i'll call FP (because we like to do that anonymity thing on our blog). FP was one of my dearest and closest friends in high school, and for various reasons (mostly, he went to school in Boston, and I remained in CT), we drifted apart.

but no more! i reconnected with FP and saw him after *over 10 years* this weekend. he is a beautiful, beautiful person, and what's more, he had not changed even a fraction on the inside.

we looked at our high school yearbook over cosmos and laughed and went through the various "reunion" stories that he missed out on. it was so fantastic to see him. i went down with another recently reconnected friend -- we took the train into the city. he met us right outside the 100-117 tracks. it was so easy to spot him (mostly because he's really tall although now more closely resembles a male model than he ever had before) and we nearly snuck past him!

we walked all over the city -- and by that i mean *all over* the city. we were in search of the perfect loungey type spot. after 2.5 hours, we settled on a tea bar in so ho. unfortunately, FP sat with his back to the door, and after we sat down, it suddenly became one of the most popular spots in so ho, and the door opened every minute or so, so FP froze. after this, we walked back up to chelsea, grabbed a bottle of vodka and some cranberry juice for cosmos. we totally lost track of time (in one of those good ways) and before we knew it, it was 9 p.m.

i cannot tell you the last time i went to dinner at 9 p.m. i felt like a young adult again! (not the kind that reads nancy drew books, but you know what i mean).

we had dinner at a cute little spanish place (great sangria, v good tapas) before finding our way back to the 12:22 train back to darien. it was a *loong* drive back to our area, but truly, a great night of fun.

it's funny the way you can miss someone so much for so long, and when you see them -- it comes rushing back to you. i dearly love FP and i'm so excited to have him back in my life. this time, i promise not to let another 10 years pass!

so let's all raise our martini glasses together to toast someone that perhaps you haven't seen in too long a time.

like they said at 4H camp, "make new friends, but keep the old... one is silver and the other gold..."

(although i find that mildly wrong because that implies that my great "newer" friends like KAT are less valuable than my old friends... which is not the case. it's not the olympics. all of my friends are precious metals...)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ooh another excuse to drink martinis *raises her glass to meeting old friends*.

"Newer" friends are sometimes better. Bunny has been my friend for over 3 years now and I love her more than someone I am still friends with from school. Friends are not the olympics but you do have to rank them.

Srg said...

That's awesome that you had such a great time in the city. And I'm glad to hear that FP is doing well! Between the initials and the height thing I know exactly who you're talking about. I'm not sure if he'll remember me, but the next time you talk to him tell him I said "Hi!"

Anonymous said...

Ahh Sj what a great post!! You made my eyes water at the end!
SJ had told me that FP thought I was mean when they were younger....so he asked her 'Is 'Anonymous' still mean?!?!?
WHAT?!?!? I guess I had a rep back then with SJ's peeps. Sorry.
Anyway- Raising your glasses to Friends!!!

Anonymous said...

If new friends are silver, and old friends are gold, walking around New York City sharing tapas and sangria with a tall male model must be in a whole different category. Maybe precious gemstones.

I love being reacquainted with an old friend I haven't seen in years. Seems like all the years that have passed suddenly disappear, and you are transported back in time to the day you were last together. You simply continue right where you left off....

sj said...

i'm very blessed to have a few friendships like that -- where we don't talk for months - and in this case, years - but you can just pick up a conversation and it's like you just spoke yesterday.

and ha! you're right, ray. i'm very *fortunate* to have such a friend. he makes me cooler by association ;)

srg- you're right - it's exactly him, and he does remember you! we were reminiscing - we even tried to translate our senior memories (those strings of letters and abbreviations in the back of the yearbook). it would appear that i had a great time at lake compounce with a whole mess of people, but i cannot for the life of me remember what it is. apparently my memory is not what it should.

and molly - i'm not sure i could do it! even though there are some friends that i don't see everyday or even every month, when i do get to see them or talk to them, it's like part of me wakes back up. that's hard to explain, i realize, but i'm also very lucky to have a few very precious friends/gemstones ;)

Anonymous said...

Most of my friends are gems, but some are just shinier than others! And if they drink martinis with me, they glow even brighter!!