The concert Wednesday night went late, and we had 150 miles to drive to get home. Unfortunately, what had seemed like a great spot near the entrance to the parking lot meant that we were trapped by other cars as they left. We were both hyped up from the great music we’d just heard, and all the talking we’d done earlier that evening.
Kindergarten Friend, at the wheel of the car, put in a CD and cranked it up high so we’d have something to listen to while we waited. I looked out at the cars all around us and said, optimistically, “It won’t be long. The parking lot’s half empty.”
She looked out. “No, it’s not, damn it. It’s half full.”
Overtired and giddy from a great evening, we both laughed so hard at this joke that we couldn’t even talk for a few minutes, perhaps the only lull in the conversation we’d been having since I’d gotten into her car 6 hours before.
That’s the making of a solid friendship, right there: when you have the same sense of humor. The other element, of course, is when you can talk about absolutely anything, and know the other person will listen.
We’ve been friends for 44 years. Yep, we met in kindergarten. We’re different in many ways – she loves to shop, for instance, and has no fear of malls — but we’re alike in the ways that matter.
When we finally got onto the highway, I said, “Oh, we might need to stop for chocolate.”
Kindergarten Friend said, without missing a beat. “Glove compartment.”
Yep, just like me, she carries emergency chocolate in her glove compartment. This is the kind of thing that makes a friendship last for decades.
6 comments:
I want you to know that I laughed out loud at the "half-full" line.
Lovely.
And that's the best idea I've heard yet-- chocolate in the glove compartment.
Well, in this climate, chocolate in the glove compartment works most months, but you do have to watch out for July and August -- it melts.
Of course there's chocolate in teh glove compartment. Sweet.
Amen. Being able to laugh at each other's jokes is important in any kind of relationship.
Cindy
Friendship is lovely. My oldest friend- I don't know when we first met- called me this week, I left a meeting to speak to her. She rarely calls me- years go by. sometimes I leave messages that go unanswered. And she wonders why I take her calls, but I know. We share things impossible to express to anyone else, our roots twined deep though our trunks are now growing so far apart.
(This became a blog post of my own, but I can't post it on my blog so I post it here!)
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