Visiting my Homegirl

Last weekend I dashed to LA to meet a long-time friend of mine who was there on business. I've known Shelly since...well, I don't remember not knowing Shelly...so I guess since birth. And although we are terrifically different--she's kind of a dukes-up sort of girl while I'm more of an arms-wide-open type--there is a sort of short hand language when you have that much history, and that is a really good thing.

Like when we met at the airport she said, "Oh, my mom called. Uncle Dick died." There was no need to catch me up or fill in the blanks. We know the same people, in fact we're both related to them.

She is also probably the only friend I have who, after I had discovered that I had forgotten my toothbrush would say, "Have you kissed anyone in the last 5 years that I don't know?...Okay, you can use mine." That is a good friend. Lucky for the germaphobes out there, we were able to find a toothbrush on our shopping spree.

But that wasn't the only thing we were willing to share over the weekend. Nope. We also shared a passion for Sephora, a tendancy to oversleep, a crab and steak dinner, linguini with scallops, and even an order of french fries, which should really tell you about the level of our relationship since I can't even share french fries with my husband.

When you've known a person for so long and have shared as many peaks and valleys as we have there's just a level of trust there. She is probably the only friend I have that would call me into the bathroom mid-bath just to say, "Remember in high school how we thought Jason Thompson was so hot?"

To which I replied, "Yeah, I dated him."

To which she replied, "So did I."

And for the record: He was hot.

She's also a friend who will look out for my best interests and tell me the truth, even when I don't necessarily want to hear it. But she also knows when to zip it. Like when we were headed down to the beach and she begged me to put on my bathing suit. "C'mon! Put on your suit! I'm wearing mine."

"I'm wearing shorts. I don't want to be cold. See, the difference is that you're from Montana and I'm from Arizona. My blood is much thinner." Early March at the beach is generally cool, and since moving to AZ I have a grand aversion to being cold. There was no way I was going to be laying out.

But what do I know? 10 minutes at the beach and I was burning up. "Okay. Give me the room key. I'm going to get my suit."

You know what? She's the kind of friend who didn't even say I told you so, and that is a really good thing.