No, not the TV show. My friends. They’re great.
It is a nice feeling to feel appreciated. To feel like people actually enjoy having you around or are excited to see you. I’ve been fortunate enough to have had that feeling a few times in the last few weeks.
A couple of weeks ago a friend that I knew in Germany was passing through town on her way back to Anchorage, Alaska after a wedding. She was staying at Paul and Laura’s house as she and Laura were best friends in high school when I knew them. I hadn’t seen her but once or twice in the last 12 years (since I left Germany) so I defintely wanted to see her after I found out she would be in town. Laura came up with the devious plan to not tell her that I was living in Minnesota again and then I would stop by the house and surprise her.
I was running a little late and Laura told me (later) that they had had one false alarm already with some Jehovah’s Witnesses coming to the house so the anticipation was even higher than we thought it would be. I got to the door and rang the bell and waited. Laura had Sonia come with her to the door and opened it up and stepped back to let Sonia see who was outside. When Sonia saw me she just started screaming “No way! No way!” Clearly she was surprised at seeing me. I couldn’t help but let out a big smile and we gave each other a big hug. I stayed for a few hours and just talked about all sorts of stuff. It was really fun to see her again.
Then later that week I finally got my lazy self in gear and called up my friends Chris and Julie. Chris answered the phone and when he said “Hi Brenden” after I identified myself I could hear Julie in the background yelling something, which I assumed was out of excitement at the prospect of us hanging out soon, which we did. It was great to see and talk to them that night and this last weekend–even if Chris did crush me in Bocce Ball.
Now don’t think that I think that I’m all that and a bag of chips. That everyone just loves seeing me because I’m so great and I don’t care about seeing them. I can feel this way, too. I’ve been excited everytime I see my old friends since I’ve been back in Minnesota. And, as I mentioned I’m heading to Chicago this weekend. I haven’t seen my friend Cari in 4 years or so and she has been living in St. Louis for about 5 years, so I’m excited to see her (though I think she’s even excited to see me again after so long as well).
As you can tell I am very blessed to have such great friends in my life. I’ve been pretty lucky wherever I’ve lived to have known wonderful people that made me feel at home wherever I happened to be.
Well, that was sufficiently sappy for today. I’m out of here.
