The Miss Elaine-ous Life

random acts of life, family and photos

My friend called the other day…

by

In these days of constant busy and growing up little kids and having my mind somewhere else but here, and well, just LIVING, I do not talk to my friends on the phone very much anymore.

I see my local friends and we text or get together for Mom nights where we talk in a group but the one-on-one conversations of love, support and laughter are few and far between these days.

But one Friday morning, my friend J called.  Just four weeks previous she had her second baby boy and when she spoke these words, “I just wanted to make sure this was still your cell phone number…”, my heart sank a little.

This is my friend since college.  We have celebrated, laughed, cried, and gone to the bathroom together.  I’ve seen her in a make-shift queen sheet toga and a gorgeous wedding dress that seemed made just for her.

She came to visit when I was in a complete daze after my first baby was born.  We used to work together and we even broke up with another ‘best’ friend and still stayed good friends ourselves.

I have lived in Louisiana for almost 3 years now and she wanted to make sure my number was the same.

This is how much we have NOT talked.

I don’t say this to be depressing, I just marvel at how fast time really does just GO.

I sat there thinking, “Surely we’ve spoken on my phone since I moved”…. “but maybe it was closer to when we first moved and she thought I’d changed my number since then…”,  “or… maybe I’m just a really sucky friend.”

I also felt bad that I had not yet officially congratulated her on the birth of her new son.  Yes, I saw her shortly before he was born but after getting email pictures from another friend of ours and glancing at them, I sent an email about how cute the new bundle was and congrats and that was that.

Thankfully she DID call and we had a really good conversation (despite B nagging me to get off the phone – he was home from school that morning! Geez, I never talk! GAH!).

She’s adjusting to being the mother of 2 and having a newborn again. We both admitted that we never really know when is a good time to call.  Fact of the matter is there is no perfect time, just like so many other things in life.

Just do it.

Also, I’ve since sent her congratulatory card to signify that the birth of her son is important to me and she is as well.

I hope there are more phone conversations in our near future.

And yes, my number is still the same.

xo, J, love you…

(this song seems appropriate, and well, I love it).

Comments

  1. Aw. I’m guilty of the same. Because I have this distate for talking on the phone (a marked contrast from my teenage days!). So I am making an effort in my last few weeks of pregnancy to see friends I haven’t seen in a while. Because life is short and precious.

  2. I’m guilty of the same thing. I’ve been trying to make a better effort to talk with my friends more and hopefully that will continue.

  4. I’m in the same boat. It’s so hard to keep in touch, but so important. What would we do without the other women in our lives who are there when we need them?
    Great post! So glad you connected again and shared your story 😉

  5. I am so guilty of this! I have so many good friends from all different areas of my life that I am horrible about keeping up with because it just never seems to be a good moment to stop and chat. When I do finally have peace, I usually just want to cherish it and have the time to myself. I definitely need to get better about keeping in touch with the women I enjoy so much. Thanks for the reminder!

  7. I’m so guilty of this. I think facbook, text messaging, and emailing have made it so easy to communicate without picking up the phone but sometimes it just feels better to actually talk to a friend.

  10. I am absolutely terrible at using the phone! I do so much for work that personally, I text and email.

    I should really work on that, thanks for the reminder!

  11. I love this. I feel such a disconnect to the “real world” sometimes. As though I’ve forgotten how to talk on the phone to my friends. I can text and tweet but a conversation is a lost art.
    It’s sad.

  12. That is so true – It happens all the time. I think that Facebook makes us all a little lazy. We know what they’re doing, and what’s going on in their lives, but we don’t really talk to old friends anymore.

    I’m so glad that you reconnected 🙂

  13. I think I need to try to call one friend a week. I only have a few that I’m really close with so it shouldn’t be so hard. Thanks for the reminder!