When I was a freshman in college, I lived in a triple.
One of my roommates told me that when she first met me, she thought I was a bitch.
We became friends before too long.
But I hear that a lot from women.
I’d like to think it’s all them.
But I guess I also have something to do with it.
I can come off a little strong initially.
I’ve been told I’m a tiny bit intimidating at times.
I think lots of people are under the impression that nothing bothers me. That I’m teflon coated.
I’m not.
And sometimes the more insecure I feel (yes, I feel that way… often), the more obnoxious I can be.
If you’ve taken a Psych 101 class, you’ve probably drawn that conclusion on your own.
Anyway, my insecurities combined with the fact that I’ve always been kind of a tomboy and that I’ve always related to guys better than girls makes for an equation where the solution is that I don’t have tons of really close girl friends.
And when I first moved to the town we live in now, I had absolutely no friends. Zero. I didn’t know anybody and none of the kids had been in the school system and Number 5 was only 2 weeks old and I was totally overwhelmed.
It seemed as though the moms at the preschool where Number 3 and 4 started had all known each other for years.
I was an outsider, and rather than try to break into the circle, my gut reaction was what it normally is. To remain on the outside. Do my own thing.
So that’s what I did.
In October I went on a field trip with Number 4’s preschool class.
And as I walked through a corn maze, I started talking to one of the other moms. I learned that she had just moved to CT from out of state. She didn’t know a single soul not just in town, but in all of Connecticut.
We had something in common.
Her son and Number 3 were super shy and plagued by anxiety issues.
Another thing in common.
She didn’t like to go shopping and she didn’t like to talk on the phone and she sucked at returning texts.
We might have been separated at birth.
When we got back to the school after the field trip, I walked to her car with her.
She opened the door to her minivan and I looked inside.
It was a complete and total shithole, and it was at that moment that I knew I had found my mom soulmate.
I spent a lot of time with my new friend M.
She was the one I’d talk to about anything knowing there would be no judgment.
If I didn’t return her texts, she didn’t get upset.
In fact, she didn’t even care, because she sucked at it too.
It’s a wonder we were ever actually able to make plans at all with our inability to communicate.
But we did.
And then, one day, out of the blue, M told me she was moving.
Not to a different street.
Or even a different town.
But clear across the country.
To California.
She left about 2 months after Number 7 was born.
It took me a long time to accept that she was gone.
In fact, I’m not sure I ever really did accept it.
Just the other day, I saw a blue minivan, and I thought to myself, it’s M!
And then I snapped back into reality.
A couple hours later, I got a text.
It was from M.
Whoah.
I hadn’t heard from her in over a year.
This is what it said:
Holy shit!
First of all, that whole minivan thing was really weird, and I think I might have ESP.
But secondly, that whole text was really awesome, and I definitely have my friend back.
Another Christmas surprise.
And the best. Present. Ever.
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