My best friend came to visit over the weekend.  To me, that’s the ultimate GNO.  Vanessa and I go way back, all the way to high school.  And our friendship has survived some pretty incredible things over the years, not the least of which is the distance between us and Vanessa being a wife and mother and me still being single and a perpetual pseudo-aunt rather than a mum myself.


I could write for days about our history, but I’ll save some of those old, juicier stories for later.  Instead, I’ll focus on what makes our visits so special, especially now that we aren’t in high school any longer.


I moved a lot growing up.  That’s one of the reasons I love Facebook.  I’ve been able to reconnect with people I went to junior high and high school with and no longer live near.  With us moving so much, I don’t really feel like I have a hometown.  “Home” is wherever my mother is  but it is nowhere I’ve lived or plan to live.   Having someone who has known me since I was fifteen, and is still a part of my life, makes me feel as though I have some roots.


A weekend visit just seems too short now. No matter what, there’s just not enough time for everything we want to do.  We did dinner Friday night; Saturday we shopped all day, then went to dinner, then shared a bottle of wine and watched a chick flick.  Sunday, we lingered over coffee before Vanessa had to head back home.


It’s just easy when you have a friend you’ve known so long, and who knows you so well.  We often laugh about how we share a brain.  And we’re so often on the same wavelength that it can be eerie.  Like the time we met for a Saturday of shopping dressed identically, down to our novelty socks, with absolutely no consultation about what each other was planning to wear.


Vanessa probably knows me better than anyone else. She is that true best friend to me. The one with whom I discuss the REALLY BIG ISSUES. The person with whom I dissolve into a fit of giggles for no apparent (or at least no sane) reason.  


Having no sisters of my own, I feel like Vanessa is what I would want in a sister, if I could create one.  The sense of familiarity and loyalty. Where we have fun no matter what we do.  Saturday night we had planned to go to dueling pianos at a local tapas bar.  And we would have had a great time (which reminds me of another post that needs to be made from when my college roommate came to visit).  But we had just as good of a time just talking and hanging out, a nice low key Girls Weekend. Part of what I think is the best thing about friendships in general, and especially best friends.