March 17, 2020

I had a FaceTime date with one of my best best friends for the first time since my accident… and it was glorious. I don’t think I realized just how long it had been since I'd seen her face or heard her voice in real time: over six whole months, a definite record in our nine year friendship, especially seeing that we were supposed to take at least three trips together in that time. We legitimately send texts and articles and photos and links and Instagram DMs and Twitter DMs back and forth all day and night, sharing and receiving more messages across more platforms with her than anyone else — running the gamut from vegan food porn to climate calls to action, breaking political news to adventure travel dreams, innovative sustainable solutions to semi-inapproriate memes, all the things. This wasn’t a quick check-in or a ‘hi’ on the go, rather a pre-scheduled, dedicated period of time that both of us carved out for a video chat, which was more necessary and soul-elevating than I could have ever imagined. We talked for hours, without an agenda or any rush, meandering from the personal to the professional, major to frivolous, serious to silly, and everything in between, hitting on many of the topics from a list we keep in Evernote of what’s on our common mind (yes, we’re geeks). And we ordered matching second-hand shorts on eBay for no reason whatsoever, other then perhaps a desire to wear them side by side one day in the not too distant future. I love my friends. I miss my friends. I need my friends. We all do.