Friends you just can't shake

We all have had friends from High School, for example, that while in HS, we all thought we would be friends forever. 14 or so years later, you either never speak to them or may not even know where they are located anymore. We even made friends in college that we kind of hung out with, but today haven't the slightest clue as to what they are up to, even in this day and age of MySpace and Facebook.

Then, of course we have those friends that we keep in touch with on an almost weekly basis. Friends we made in High School or College, that now live in Alabama and China and all points in between.

But then there are those friends we were great pals with at one point in our lives, then we all got radio silence, then suddenly the friendship is back! One of those friends, to me, is KellieJ.

This post is liken to that that I wrote almost a year ago to the week actually, titled "Sat on their park bench like bookends."

My wife and I had to go down to Tampa, FL to host a baby shower for my sister-in-law. As luck would have it, I found out from Kellie herself that she lived not but 1.5 hours from there and that the possibility of her coming up to see us was very much so a reality.

We got extremely lucky in that she was able to make it. She drove alone as her husband had to work. She even put up with me feeling like we had to go to some cool resturant in Tampa to eat dinner. God showed me how stupid I was by allowing me to get lost and miss an exit. I was so upset that I was wasting Kellie's time. We pulled off at a random exit and we ate and some pizzaria next to a Publix grocery store. And honestly, we could have eaten at a filthy Wal-Mart eatery and still enjoyed the time.

I sometimes tend to forget that with true friends, it doesn't matter where you eat, what you eat, or even tat you do eat together. Kellie, my wife and I had a ball catching up and just laughing. It was actually better than the good ole days of college because, while Kellie and I spoke in college and hung out and various events, I wouldn't say the two of us were inseperable buddies, but it seems that time, distance, life (And the internet) has brought us together as friends, albeit, friends that typically communicate via email, blog, or MySpace.

When Kellie and I started communicating with each other several years after college, she became a sort of celebrity to me. Everyone knew her, everyone liked her, andeveryone had good memories of her. She made several awesome YouTube videos (mostly of old school footage) that made everyone in our MySpace realm become so thankful for her. I began toying with YouTube and film and would always look to Kellie to approve my work. So us hanging out with Kellie was, in a way to me, like hanging out with a really famous person! I did, however, forget to get her autograph.

You all will be happy to know that Kellie is just as nice and geniue as ever, and still looks like the old KellieJ, only better! Kellie has always been one of those people who everyone likes, but in the back of your head you keep thinking "Can someone REALLY be this nice or is she a mean and hateful person behind closed doors?". I tend to think she is the real deal. :)

By the way, if anyone can explain to me what the relationship between aligator heads and windchimes are, I am all ears (See pic below)