Just when you think you’re on top of things, the sky falls. Sheesh.

I really, really, hate money. I also hate the fact that even though we try our best, sacrifice a lot, and break our backs to be responsible and upstanding citizens, life still jacknifes around and slaps us. I hate the fact that even though we care and we try, other people who don’t care and don’t try live lives of ease, and have the good luck that seems to avoid us like the plague.

Grr.

On the other hand, a friend came over today to sketch me. We’ve known one another since our first year of high school, and she’s definitely my oldest friend. We even roomed together for a year. We have a tendency to weave in and out of one another’s life; a couple of years of being close, a year or so of doing our own thing, a slow amalgamation of lives again…

I sat for two hours while she took different angles, used different media and light, and we talked about everything under the sun: what was new in our lives, what was going wrong, the lessons we’ve learned. The nice thing about friends like this is you can pick up right where you left off – no awkward re-integration, just jumping right into the deep personal stuff that you used to talk about sprawled across each other’s beds years ago, with a glass of wine, late at night.

We tend to forget how similarly we react to life, and how good we are for one another. We really should get together more often. And yet, I wonder – if we did, would things be the same? Would they be as easy? Or would there be all the little things that trip you up, the familiarity-breeding-contempt issue?

So she got work done, I got to sit and do nothing (what a novelty!), and we both downloaded and got to relax. We encouraged one another regarding our artistic pursuits. We shared secrets that even our significant others don’t know. And apart from re-discovering how much we enjoy one another’s company, we also agreed to do another girls’ night like we used to do. We’re currently trying to figure out where we can go to cause as much trouble as possible.