Visiting an Old Friend
I have been ruminating about my college friend Vicky, who will be in town for an SPE convention in April and will visit me.
Vicky's life and my life have had many parallels. Neither of us were the best students, but we did well enough to be hired. We were both women engineers who were first placed in the field working. I was in the Four Corners Region and she was in small town west Texas. Neither one of us had much of a social life with the men in those small towns. I was holding on to a relationship from college and she had a few flings here and there, but nothing of substance for either one of us. At roughly the same time, we both started running longer races. Shortly thereafter, we each moved - she to Houston and me to Tulsa.
She came to visit me soon after I moved and we ran the Tulsa Run together. I am convinced that Nathan was conceived the weekend of her wedding. In fact, I think there are roughly three babies who have Vicky's wedding to thank for their existence.
After I had my first baby, she came to visit and I remember pushing the stroller and running with her. She now has two children, as do I.
I used to travel to Houston nearly every other week and we used to see each other much more frequently, but it has now been about two years since I have seen her. The last time, we met in Dallas to run a half marathon together. My boys went down with me, but Vicky left hers at home. Nevertheless, we caught up for dinner and margaritas and it was like we had only seen each other a few days before. The next day, we ran the race together, neither of us running for time, but simply to spend 2+ hours hanging out together.
There is something to be said about immediately being able to drop into conversation with someone and knowing she will be there for you and understand you and support you. I miss her deeply and I am overjoyed that she will be visiting soon.
Vicky's life and my life have had many parallels. Neither of us were the best students, but we did well enough to be hired. We were both women engineers who were first placed in the field working. I was in the Four Corners Region and she was in small town west Texas. Neither one of us had much of a social life with the men in those small towns. I was holding on to a relationship from college and she had a few flings here and there, but nothing of substance for either one of us. At roughly the same time, we both started running longer races. Shortly thereafter, we each moved - she to Houston and me to Tulsa.
She came to visit me soon after I moved and we ran the Tulsa Run together. I am convinced that Nathan was conceived the weekend of her wedding. In fact, I think there are roughly three babies who have Vicky's wedding to thank for their existence.
After I had my first baby, she came to visit and I remember pushing the stroller and running with her. She now has two children, as do I.
I used to travel to Houston nearly every other week and we used to see each other much more frequently, but it has now been about two years since I have seen her. The last time, we met in Dallas to run a half marathon together. My boys went down with me, but Vicky left hers at home. Nevertheless, we caught up for dinner and margaritas and it was like we had only seen each other a few days before. The next day, we ran the race together, neither of us running for time, but simply to spend 2+ hours hanging out together.
There is something to be said about immediately being able to drop into conversation with someone and knowing she will be there for you and understand you and support you. I miss her deeply and I am overjoyed that she will be visiting soon.
1 Comments:
It is great to have people in your life that you can just pick up with no matter how long its been since you last spoke. I find it so hard to keep up with long distance friends these days but when I talk to them its always good. Enjoy the visit!
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