Phone Friends

Didja ever have phone friends? Those people you talked on the phone with for HOURS AND HOURS AND HOURS? I guess it's not so common anymore. We text now. We're short and to the point at least for the most part. Who would EVER stay on the phone for 3 hours…or all night? Yeah, ALL FUCKING NIGHT?

I've had 2 "phone friends" that I can think of. Three if you include my current friend who is down in Maryland but I don't think of her in this category because if we lived closer I'd force her into my group of regular friends so she's only safe based on distance.

I guess in fact the other two didn't qualify as only "phone friends" either but it was before the time of e-mail and texting (yes, children there was a time before e-mail and texting, trust me, there was).

Phone Friend #1, we'll call him "P" (that's odd, phone friend #2 has the same first initial, perhaps we'll just call him #1 or P1, yes that's it P1). P1 was a guy friend in high school. We would talk all night and often fall asleep on the phone together then wake each other up in the morning by screaming over the phone. Classy, I know. I never dated P1. I never so much as kissed him. In person, in school, we were "friendly" but didn't really move in the same groups. It's weird, ya know. We were both pretty "popular" (I'm crazy, crazy people are always reasonably popular because others are afraid of us, trust me, it's true) but in different groups and in different ways but come night time? We were each other's everything. We'd talk about all sorts of stuff which totally escapes me all these years later. We never kept in touch a single day past high school but for those 4 years we logged thousands of phone hours together. Sweet.

In the '80's I had P2. I miss her…a lot. She was one of the most unique and wonderful people I've ever known and I've only seen her once since the '80's. We were both at a Sopranos (yeah, the TV show) premier party in NYC. She was married to some very normal guy. She seemed happy. I hope she is. We would talk for HOURS most week nights in the middle of the night. She was one of the few people I've ever known who was so much like me. We "got" each other. She had a little dog that she adored and a house she owned in an off-beat part of NYC that would've scared the average person but for her…it was home. Damn I miss her (and no, I can't even fucking find her on facebook so stop asking).

My current friend that almost makes this category doesn't have "P" as a first initial. I don't want to just be phone friends and I don't think we are. But I have to say that as far as P2 goes, I miss her, I do. A3 is my current phone friend and the only reason we're "phone friends" is because I have a long commute to work and she lives a few hours away. She's not close enough to see all the time. It'd be great if she were closer mostly because we're both breakfast people (a whole OTHER category) and our significant others are NOT breakfast people so I'd have someone to meet for breakfast if she were closer but that's not in the cards and that's fine. Life happens that way.

I don't really know where this rant came from but now I'm missing those first two phone friends and making a commitment to A3 that she will NOT fade away. Not fade away, great song, better sentiment.