Today was a very good day!!

Tonight I had dinner with my oldest and dearest friend! For most of my loyal blog readers (I only know of a handful of you), you know who I'm talking about: Patrick James Torrens!! Some of my earliest elementary school memories involve Patrick, from lunch time fun (if you're reading this P Diddy, do you remember "chop suey??") and speech classes ("RRRRRogerrr RRRRabbit" and "Sally sells seashells by the seashore") to afternoon dance classes and special Valentine's Day cards every year. We stayed good friends throughout middle school (Conjunction Junction, anyone?) and grew even closer in high school--you could find me at Patrick's house nearly every Friday night. The night before I left for college, back in August of 2003, I went over to Patrick's for one last time. I was headed to CNU and he was headed all the way up to NYU. I remember coming home and crying in Dad's arms telling him that everything was going to change. And it did. For the first year and a half, we called each other pretty much every week, and he would tell me about his exciting City life and Olsen twin sightings while I would tell him whatever nonsense was going on in my life at the time. We still saw each other occasionally on weekends home during the college years, but only occasionally. The phone calls and the visits spread out. He worked for law firms and theaters, eventually moving back to Virginia to become a teacher. And tonight--tonight I got to have dinner with Patrick! My job brought me to Augusta County where my dear friend Patrick is a third grade Social Studies teacher. We had dinner and chatted and caught up and I was reminded of all the reasons why I adore him so much and why he was such a good friend for so many years. We left each other tonight promising to stay in touch better, and I hope very much that we keep that promise. He's living with a girlfriend who he has been with for a year or so, and I can't believe that I've never met her. He has never met Dave, which I also can't believe. All I can say is that I hope we do a lot better at staying in touch and keeping our almost 20-year friendship going.
This is from that night before leaving for college, when we all went our separate ways. That is Patrick on the right. In case he starts reading this blog, I'll save him from putting up a picture from earlier on in our friendship (Patrick, you know the recital picture I'm talking about too!)