Constants

I miss my Constants.

The more places I go and the more changes I experience, the more I appreciate the Constants in life. In my current situation, I'm fortunately surrounded by dozens of new wonderful friends and opportunities.  But even in this great new life, I often find myself aching, pining, internally sobbing, for those familiar, comfortable Constants.

My Constants are obviously my family -- sisters, brothers, parents, cousins, in-laws -- all of whom live hundreds and thousands of miles away from me right now. As far as family goes, I feel safe in knowing that I'll always have reasons to see them again. Families get together and are always connected. It's never too difficult or complicated.

But the Constants that make me feel lonely these days are the ones outside my family. These are the ones who are in more danger of drifting away because they won't always be invited and gathered to the same reunions or weddings or family events as me. It takes EFFORT and MONEY and TIME and a lot of STUFF to get together with them now, and sometimes that makes them seem so freaking far out of reach. I'd prefer an arm's length, and no more.

These are the ones I need right now. These kinds of friends only come around once in a blue moon. These are the ones I've been through fire with. The ones who have seen me on really bad days and who love me anyway. The ones who ask the questions that only they can get the answers to. The ones who make me feel comfortable exactly as I am. The ones who actively care and listen and tease. 

I miss them like crazy.

Today, I'm talking about a few families that we met in Chicago. I say "families" because even though I mostly miss the ladies, I miss the guys who were so tight with my Matt, and the munchkins who were so perfect with my munchkins.

We were all kind of inseparable for two years. After business school, we were lucky enough to have three of the four of us move to the same corner of the country -- Michigan, Buffalo NY, and New Jersey. At least in that situation, we could drive to meet up in Buffalo over long weekends. It wasn't too hard to see each other. 

But, in the last year, there has been movement. Movement like a giant earthquake that's ripping my world apart! Our Buffalo family moved to Boston, and our New Jersey family is moving all the way to San Francisco. With our fourth living in Houston, we now have pretty much scattered ourselves as far apart as we could possibly be in the continental U.S.

Sucks.

The following photos come from get togethers since last May (Galena, IL; Buffalo, NY; Hoboken, NJ; Midland, MI; Chicago, IL; Houston, TX; Niagara Falls). I neglected to post most of them due to fear of collapsing into a state of friend-missing-depression. So here they are all at once, in no special order.

Cue sad Sarah Mclachlan puppy music now.

 

I miss the friends I can have fun doing anything with.

Friends who love my kids enough to take adorable pictures of them and send them to me.

Friends who like my husband even though he's a weirdo.
Look, not even Josh wants to be seen with that guy.

Friends who eat good food with me.

Buffalo Wings

Blueberry Picking

Charlie the Butcher

Dirty Gurt's in Galena

Such good friends that they can persuade my picky eater to stuff his face.

Friends who have seen my kids like this...

But still love them like this...

 

Friends who take me to get pedicures because we deserve a little pampering now and then.

Friends who make me feel like being silly.

Yes, that's a Hannah Montana shirt. Don't judge. She's got the best of both worlds! Do you?!

Friends who make glasses look cool.

 

Friends who swap kids with me.

Friends who laugh with me until we cry.



Friends who are devastatingly attractive.

Stop being so far away, okay? Just STOP it!

I'm sending out the Bat Signal. News Team assemble!