Thank God for Soap Operas

My sister is right, I really don't want my last blog post to be about cold showers. I haven't written because first I didn't have anything to say, and then I found myself with too much to say.

Yesterday was again one of those days that didn't start how I thought it would. I was on my way out the door of the 4th house I have "sat" in 2008 when my friend Lauren called. Lauren, Will, Ben and Katie had all gone out to Colorado for Winter Break to visit family and explore future job stuff. I decided to let it go to voice mail so I could get out the door and start the day, figuring she was just calling to say hi and see how all the dogs were doing (sidenote: THE dogs are basically like their kids...and while I did not have the pleasure of being their official dogsitter--being occupied with sitting another house at the time--I did arrange the current dog sitters so I felt a bit responsible). But, I was wrong. She was calling to let me know that our friend Ben's father had passed away that morning. I drove around the block back to the house because suddenly going to the coffee shop to study didn't seem like the right thing to do. I wasn't sure what the right thing to do was. I cried. I called Lauren back. Sent Ben a text. Swore. Cried. Swore some more and then called Kate.

An hour later Kate and I were sitting at the cafe in Alpen Rose. She came into town because we needed to be together. I am not sure how to explain the depth of all of our friendships, but it is deep. The kind of deep that comes from shared grief, seeing each other at our worst and gently reminding each other that it is bound to get better at some point. Don't get me wrong, we are fun and we laugh a lot too...but we have seen each other through some serious shit. Kate and I mostly sat. Talked. Ate the cookies that Kate had brought because times like these always call for cookies. We pretended to do some school work. Brainstormed the best way to get out to Colorado. Talked about how life just flips on you so fast sometimes and how quickly all of our lives have shifted at one point or another. Ate another cookie and then decided to go walk the dogs because we felt it would somehow make us feel closer to our friends in Colorado.

In the midst of our sitting and talking I looked up at the TV screen on the wall and there he was--the guy with the patch on his eye from Days of Our Lives. I have never been a huge soap opera buff but I have flipped through TV enough in my life to know that this guy has been around for a long time. And I am pretty sure has been dead or missing in the storyline at least once or twice. I kind of laughed and said, "good to see that guy is still around." Kate replied, "Yeah, at least some things in life are constant." Thank God for Soap Operas.