A Surprise of the Best Kind

If you know me, you'll know that I am not one for surprises. I have talked ad nauseum about the all the planning I do and how I have an idea in my head at all times. And if plan A is not going to work out for me, then I move on to plan B or C or D or... I am not one for spontaneity or doing things on a whim. Don't get me wrong - I have my moments and I am not a total stick in the mud, but for the most, I like to stick to my plan. It gives me a route through my day or my week or even my life.

But some surprises are wonderful. Like being surprised by the unexpected visit of a good friend thanks to all the vagaries of life. A fuel depot catches fire, a flight gets canceled, and suddenly, friends call, looking for a place to crash. I like those kind of surprises. Not surprisingly, a little because I get to do a good deed, which I am all for, especially if it involves a friend. And I also get to see someone I missed so much and love so dearly. For all the emails and the sometimes phone calls, the facebook and the twitter and the foursquare, it is nice to just be in the same place at the same time, talking about things.

There are so many things that can't be said over the phone or via email. There are inflections of voice and looks and cadences that get lost when they are transmitted over the channel and across the pond. So, here's to life throwing surprises my way. Because sometimes the best surprise is learning that you are not entirely averse to surprises after all.

Things that Make you Go Hmmmmmm

I have been silent for a while. Not so much because I have not had anything to say or because I have not been thinking - as I tend to do - but because life has been slow and it has been easy to slip into old habits, like a comfy pajama.

I find that life lately has taken some interesting terms. I find myself flirting with relative strangers who are very distant from me, but yet near and dear in their own special way. I find myself getting excited about possibilities and chance that might be nothing more than a wisp of a figment of a dream. I find myself happy and enthused when people who should be less to me have happy events. And I find comfort in not yet regretting a moment that has passed, though I know that someday, I will look back and regret what might have been but never was.

Happy Birthday Beautiful!

This is a special post for a special friend. I have been thinking about her loads since I moved here, and missing her company for so many reasons. But today is her birth day, and there are so many thing I remember about the first birthday I ever celebrated with her.

The funny thing, is that at the time, we were not really friends so much as two people thrown together by circumstance. So, I remember going to a pub for a darts match with her brother, and learning that it was her birthday. So I felt compelled (wanting to make a good third impression) to get a little card to mark the occasion. I did, and was then told that I had managed to spell her name wrong, one of the things that she most hated. Great start to a good relationship.

But it seems to have been, because over the weeks and months from that point onwards, we grew to be friends. She taught me darts and we would meet to drink and talk. She was the person that I got along well with, even when the circumstances that brought us together and made me want to impress her were gone. Instead, I wanted to impress her and keep her as a friend. And I am glad I did.

Her second birthday I remember because I was actually able to be there for it, which was special and was something that had been a distinct impossibility. I remember months in advance, buying a lovely top I thought she might like, only to learn that not only had she almost bought the same thing, but making her cry because I had to give her more than a month before her birthday because I was not sure if I would be back in time. Or, more likely as I believed at the time, that I would be back at all.

It has been hard, seeing milestones past from afar and wishing more than anything that I was able to be there. So, in my way, I want to celebrate a lovely person that I have had the luck to become good friends with.

Time and Distance

This is a little something that I think about every once in a while - the fact that most of my life I have been playing a little game of see how long this one lasts with my friendships. Being a child who moved from place to place, and having grown into an adult (if you can cal it that) who likes to seek the next big thing and suffers from a slight case of wanderlust, it is sometimes amazing to me that I know people I can call friend in every place I have been and in every place I want to go. I sometimes think about the distance, especially when a friend needs me. And I think about the time I spend away from them. I also seem to spend much time thinking about all the times we had together as friends; all the things that cemented our bonds and made us the friends we are today. Sometimes the best - and worst - part of having so many friends who are so far away is that I think over all the happy times with them and my heart longs to be close to them again. To hear them in person, instead of holding a phone to my ear or trying to convey in black and white the things that require nuance and grace and fiber of being.

But all of this pales in comparison when I think about the fact that even through all this distance, there are people who try. People who go out of their way to come and visit and spend some time with me. People who are happy to treat my home as their own and people who will allow me the pleasure whenever I have the need to treat their home as mine. I sometimes feel a tinge of remorse and regret when I notice that yet one more person has suddenly been lost to the void; that I am no longer connected to their life. But yet, I look at all the connections I can still count on and I think how very lucky I am that to these people, time and distance is all just a relative concept.