I sit in front of the computer with snot and tears dribbling down my face, waiting for you to sign into Skype. I’m so thankful you will listen to my cry, give me a virtual hug, and then say nothing just to make me feel better. Never just to make me feel better. You say things that are true and I know they are but I forgot. I needed to hear them, desperately needed to be reminded. You are there for me, always. I know that and I am so thankful.

I get by with a little help from my friends. – Lennon/McCartney

I watch you move out of your New York apartment. I don’t just watch, I help you bring box after box down from the fifth floor walk up. Every step sucks, not because my paltry upper body strength is unqualified for the job (yours is too), but because I don’t want you to leave. When the last box leaves the apartment, the usual 60 minute subway ride to your place becomes a 6 hour journey crossing several state lines. Still, I’m here for you, in a more physical/brute force way than usual, and I’m so glad to be.

A good friend will help you move. But a best friend will help you move a dead body. – Jim Hayes

I hustle to the subway, already running late to meet a friend for drinks. I dial your number imagining we’ll continue our constant, epic game of phone tag. I shriek with surprise, miraculously you pick up the phone. I take a taxi I can’t afford 20 blocks just so we can talk. It’s the best $10 I spend all week. Laughing, loudly discussing birth control, the rest of the world melts away. To be honest, the sound of your voice makes me happier than I’ve felt all week. That’s true love: something I struggle so miserably to find in a romantic partner. But with you, my friend, it’s never a struggle and for that I’m so thankful.

Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing. – Elie Wiesel

I stare at my phone, at our group text chain. The little gray iMessage bubble says you just arrived in Paris. You are safe. You’re staying inside. Huh? What? It’s the evening of Friday the 13th and this text is the first inclination I have that something is wrong.  Thus I knew you were safe before I knew of the terror occurring in the city you were visiting for your birthday weekend. It was overwhelming being so thankful you were safe and so horrified about the thousands in Paris who weren’t so lucky. We dressed up like twins every year at summer camp, we used to prank people that we were related, you’re the closest to a sister this only child has. Remember that time I told you I’d fly anywhere in the world if you needed me? That’s a promise. I never thought I’d be thankful to not have an excuse to visit Paris, but holy fuck am I ever thankful.

Friendship is like peeing your pants. Everyone can see it, but only you can feel the warm feeling inside. – Unknown

My least favorite New York cliché: all your friends start leaving New York around age 30. For several glorious years four of my oldest friends all lived in the tri-state area. A golden age of friendship, alas it is no more! Now we all live in different states, one in an entirely different continent. We have to work like high profile event planners to find a time when we are all free and can get together. Just to Skype.

Last month those of us still in the US got together for a fall-tastic weekend in Western Mass. It was hella short (we’re all from San Francisco, that’s Bay Area lingo), hella hard to find just 36 hours that we were all free, but hella, HELLA sweet. We took hella pictures. Shocker.

I just love these girls so much. I could devote an entire blog to them “BEST FRIENDS FOREVER Cliché”. Our friendships are so strong, distance will never change that. I’m so thankful I have no doubts about that. I’ve spent at least one Thanksgiving with each of them, though not this year. This year I just wrote this post and thought about how thankful I am to have incredible best friends.

Some how I’ve been to forgive my best friends for abandoning NYC. That’s how I know it’s true, life long friendship. – Mary Lane, New York Cliché