Restructuring

Man it's been a while since I last wrote. Let's see, what's happened?

When I was in fourth grade (seriously, I'm going somewhere with this) my mammie moved me from Framingham to Ashland. The move, the fifth in my life, didn't sit well with me. Actually, to this day, I loathe Ashland. There's, like, 2 good things about Ashland and that's it. And I'm getting to one of them.

So, I was in Ashland and I was in the fourth grade. I was entering elementary school at an utterly inconvenient time when everyone else was adjusted already and settled with their best friends and state fair projects and what not. I don't know what kind of impression I was going for, but it involved itching powder, thumbtacks, and one rather unhappy teacher. At any rate, it garnered lots of attention, some good, some not so good. One day I was revelling in my newfound noteriety sipping some water at the bubbler and this amazon girl came over and shoved me face first into the cold steel nozzle. I don't know what happened next, the details are hazy. I think there was some sort of scuffle, a little bit of arguing, maybe a couple weeks of reciprocal sabotage and then, voila, I had a best friend.

I've been through many best friends. Some are now like family, some have come and gone, others are rekindling and some are falling away but through it all I never forgot my first, Sabies. I realize that sounds just a bit creepy, but it wasn't like that at all. Sabies and I covered a whole lot of life together.

We started out acting out scenes from our favorite series of books. (The Black Stallion) We would argue over who got to be Black and who got to be Flame. (One freakin word - one word about me being a big black horse now is all it will take for a punch in the nose. I still have thumbtacks too) We argued over who's dad (Both Electrical Engineers) was smarter. Her dad was also a detective, but my dad had better business cards, and that was tres importante.

Back then, parents weren't as good at parenting as they are now. Sabies and I were largely unsupervised. We learned how to do things like set the woods on fire, creep out the front door while my mothers boyfriend snored on the couch at midnight (in a VERY revealing bathrobe - GAG), put ourselves to sleep with Nyquil so we could have a midweek sleepover (never worked. Should have visited Mayo Clinic) and other less innocent things as time passed. For being so naughty, we were so very naive. I don't know how we lived.I don't know how we lived so dangerously and yet so chaste at the same time. (well, sort of)

Anyway, Sabies and I lost touch around the time I went in the Marines. I don't know why or how, I guess it had something to do with me being a Marine and all gung ho about that, but I never forgot her. Years passed without us speaking. Then, just a couple of days after my dad died, Sabies called. And we picked up our conversation where we left off. How can that be? How can so many years pass, how can so much life pass and yet I feel like she's been there all along?

Someone upstairs is really looking out for me.