My California Friend...

I decided to write this post the evening before going to California for my big "I'm going to go crazy and have a great time." trip! Well, I don't know how crazy exactly. Knowing me it will be pretty tame.

However, going to California would not be possible without my dear friend. Remember I do not use names on my blog but those of you who know me, will know who I am talking about.

Anyway, rewind to June 1989. I was making my way to Japan, as an exchange student. My first stop on this journey was California, specifically USC. All of the students going to Japan with AFS that June met up there. We had to spend the night in the dorms before heading the airport the next day. It was easier this way because we were all in one place at one time since we were all coming from different parts of the country.

I met my friend there. Actually at dinner. See, I was really awkward and shy. I was overweight and it just seemed like I could never make friends with anyone. It just seemed like no matter how nice I thought I was being no one liked me. It was very depressing.

Anyway, this beautiful fashionable girl starts chatting me up. We end up eating super together. She was really nice. I figured that was the end of that. Well, as it turned out she and I ended up sitting together on a 10 hour flight to Japan, and we talked the entire 10 hours. I can't tell you what it was about her, or what she saw in me, but it was like we were kindred spirits meant to meet and be friends.

We got to Japan and spent 4 days at the National Youth Center in Tokyo for "cultural training" We didn't see each other much during those 4 days, and I did end up making another friend too, but when we did catch up with each other, it was like she was still my best-est friend.

After the 4 days, we all split up and headed to our prospective host families throughout Japan, my friend stayed on the big island of Honshu while I was north on the island of Hokkaido. We wrote to each other practically every week. See in 1989, there was no internet or email.

When our exchange program was over we met up once again in Tokyo, and due to circumstances beyond our control, 64 American Exchange students were delayed in going home when scheduled. So, AFS-Japan put us up in this very exclusive hotel in Tokyo. I believe it was called the "Imperial Hotel" but I can't remember. All I do know, is when you get 64 American teenagers together without adult supervision in a foreign country with no drinking age....it becomes interesting.

My friend, taught me how to be "bad" well, she would laugh at that and say she never taught me anything, that everything I did was my choice, and she is 100% correct. But, I have to say...I learned how to smoke cigarettes from her and how to have a good time an not feel guilty.

Our exploits that night in Tokyo are some of the best memories I have. In fact, my entire time in Japan was the best in my life.

But, all good things end, and my friend and I had to say our goodbyes. She went back to her home in California and I went back to my home in Pennsylvania.

We kept in touch and in 1995, we met up again. I was spending a month with my brother in Utah and decided to take a side trip to California to visit my friend. We had a wonderful 4 days together. We went all over, out to clubs it was so much fun. But, I felt so awkward, I always did when I was with her. Because she was so beautiful and people just were like magnets to her. I wanted to be just like her. Hell, I still do!

Again, our lives separated and we were reunited 2 more times. When I was 2 months pregnant with Jesse and then just after Jesse was born....and then after that no contact for 13 years.

It was not for anything except each of us were traveling on different paths in our lives and sometime friends have to travel separate roads for a while. It is just how things are.

Thank God for Facebook! My friend and I after 13 years were reunited, and it was like those 13 years never happened! We picked up right were we left off. Except now I'm 150lbs thinner, and a lot more confident!

I have a great feeling about this week. So for the next 7 days, my blogs will be dedicated to my California Adventure!