The Game of Life

www.nolanpchak.blogspot.com If you are lucky, you'll have a few friends in your lifetime that you can just be super silly with and they get it. You’d roll around laughing until your sides hurt and in the end had no idea why you started laughing in the first place. So you’d start all over. I had a friend like that for several years in my tween & early teenage years. We’d spend summers at the local pool, riding her parent’s double bike around the neighborhood, or just hanging out at each other’s houses. She’d tag along on trips and we’d buy matching shirts from our “big” vacation. I’ll never forget the Pymatuning Lake half-shirts! We laughed until we cried. For hours. Days. Months. Years. Somewhere around the start of high school, we drifted apart and then she moved. Not too far, but pre-cellphone & internet days it was harder to keep in touch and kids will be kids, out of sight, out of mind. By the time we started driving and could have visited more often we must have had a new group of friends and jobs….. meaning no time for old friends. Our paths have crossed very few times over the years, even though we both stayed in the same area. Just the way the cookie crumbled. It didn’t mean I didn’t think of her often, especially on my birthday. You see, her birthday was the day after mine and we always had fun celebrating together. So every July 28 for the past 20 or so years I’ve whispered a “Happy Birthday Heidi” to the wind and hoped she thought of me too. A few weeks ago, in the “suggestions” section of facebook, up popped Heidi’s sister. I sent her an email and she answered back with Heidi’s phone and told me to call her. She knew Heidi would be so happy to hear from me. I waited. I hadn’t talked to her in 11 years so I figured a few days wouldn’t matter. I wanted to call her on her birthday and actually say it to her. Several phone tags later, we finally got to talk. It was like we’d never missed a beat. Those are the friendships that are just meant to be. This time we are older and wiser and won’t let it slip away for 20 years. One of my fondest memories of hanging out at Heidi’s house was playing the game of “Life.” We’d go through the game, get married, have a couple of kids and live happily ever after. That is kind of how it seems to have worked out in “real life” for Heidi and I too. Our lives couldn’t be more similar at the moment (that is unless Heidi pops out an 18 month old boy so her daughter can have a twin!) Sadly a few weeks ago, one of my friendships ended, but today an old one was rekindled. Whenever a door closes…………