The Ties That Bind
I get this text message out of the clear blue the other day that said:"I'm going to be in town and I want to see you - call me (XXX-XXX-XXXX) or Donna (XXX-XXX-XXXX) and we'll work out the details - Love, Mikki".
I was absolutely over the moon! Mikki (Monique) is one of my closest friends in the world. We met when we were teenagers and she, her twin sister Monica, and another lifelong friend Donna and I were inseparable. We called ourselves "The Hard Pack", a result of the fact that we all smoked Camel Lights and had a giant Joe Camel poster on the living room wall of the apartment we lived in on Lenox Road back in the beginning of the 1990's. We've been in and out of touch on and off for years, after we all left Atlanta and scattered all over the place. Monica stayed in Atlanta for a few years, got married, and now lives in Florida with her husband and 4 boys. Donna got married as well, had a baby girl, and currently is living in Newnan. Mikki left Atlanta for the Air Force, and has been living in Colorado ever since - not counting a stint in New Mexico. She has two of the most gorgeous, polite, and even tempered children I've ever seen in my life, and a cornfed husband from Indiana that I got to meet yesterday as well. He immediately struck me as the type of man I can trust to take good care of her and honor her and those children as a good man is supposed to do, which made me feel completely at ease.
First I talked to Donna on the phone for about 20 minutes, which was just incredible for me. We spent most of the conversation laughing and talking about her man and mine, and planning on seeing one another this Thursday when she comes into town for a bit. She lives closest to me, maybe an hour away and just south of Atlanta, so I can count on seeing her on at least a somewhat regular basis.
We talked about old times and a few things we did when we were much younger, considerably more irresponsible and fearless, and unbound by everything we know now about life, making choices in the world, and what it all can do to you. There are only a few people I know that I can see after a long absence from one another and it's like we pick up exactly where we leave off. I cannot explain what seeing her made me feel like, I don't even have the words. It was priceless to me beyond measure.
I am way past elated at the prospect of getting reacquainted with my sisters - we've considered ourselves family since we met and began going through life together and with everything that has happened to each of us in recent years, I'm starting to feel hopeful that we're beginning to come full circle with one another. I'm going to start by putting together music. There are literally years and hundreds of songs shared between us, and I'm going to wrack by brain getting this stuff on CDs for all of us.
I was absolutely over the moon! Mikki (Monique) is one of my closest friends in the world. We met when we were teenagers and she, her twin sister Monica, and another lifelong friend Donna and I were inseparable. We called ourselves "The Hard Pack", a result of the fact that we all smoked Camel Lights and had a giant Joe Camel poster on the living room wall of the apartment we lived in on Lenox Road back in the beginning of the 1990's. We've been in and out of touch on and off for years, after we all left Atlanta and scattered all over the place. Monica stayed in Atlanta for a few years, got married, and now lives in Florida with her husband and 4 boys. Donna got married as well, had a baby girl, and currently is living in Newnan. Mikki left Atlanta for the Air Force, and has been living in Colorado ever since - not counting a stint in New Mexico. She has two of the most gorgeous, polite, and even tempered children I've ever seen in my life, and a cornfed husband from Indiana that I got to meet yesterday as well. He immediately struck me as the type of man I can trust to take good care of her and honor her and those children as a good man is supposed to do, which made me feel completely at ease.
First I talked to Donna on the phone for about 20 minutes, which was just incredible for me. We spent most of the conversation laughing and talking about her man and mine, and planning on seeing one another this Thursday when she comes into town for a bit. She lives closest to me, maybe an hour away and just south of Atlanta, so I can count on seeing her on at least a somewhat regular basis.
We talked about old times and a few things we did when we were much younger, considerably more irresponsible and fearless, and unbound by everything we know now about life, making choices in the world, and what it all can do to you. There are only a few people I know that I can see after a long absence from one another and it's like we pick up exactly where we leave off. I cannot explain what seeing her made me feel like, I don't even have the words. It was priceless to me beyond measure.
I am way past elated at the prospect of getting reacquainted with my sisters - we've considered ourselves family since we met and began going through life together and with everything that has happened to each of us in recent years, I'm starting to feel hopeful that we're beginning to come full circle with one another. I'm going to start by putting together music. There are literally years and hundreds of songs shared between us, and I'm going to wrack by brain getting this stuff on CDs for all of us.