A Meeting of Prairie Dogs

I received a phone call yesterday from a college friend, someone I hadn’t heard from in nearly 20 years.

“Hello?” I squeaked, still recovering from laryngitis.

“Hello, is Emama there?” (Of course, he used my real name.)

“This is she,” I barely said.

“This is your friend.”

That is all it took. Hours later, we were enjoying dinner at a local restaurant, filling in the foggy details of the past 20 years. He knew a little about this person. I filled in some details of that person. We played show and tell with pictures of our kids (six in total).

He was, literally, among the first people I met on campus. He was an upperclassman, passing out t-shirts to the incoming freshmen. He became the “T-shirt authority” which was my nickname for him. He was one of the few people I knew on campus that first week (and even though I did remember his real name, the nickname stuck for awhile). So, here we were, twenty years later, having dinner. It was really, really nice to see him.

It just took one call.

I have lived in a lot of different places. I have had quite a few different jobs. Out there, somewhere, are quite a few people who could just one day call me up for dinner. I am not that good at keeping in touch and probably never will be. It is not that I never think about these friends. I do. I hope they are all doing well. I hope that every once in awhile they hope that I am doing well. In the meantime, I live in my little hole underground, taking care of my very important little people, and paying close attention to my life within a few mile radius.

And then, every once in awhile, we poke our heads out of our little holes and say ‘hello.’

Thank goodness there are a few people out there who just make that call.

It is hard for me to imagine someone stumbling upon my blog who knew me years before. But, if you do, if you are one of those people who haven’t heard from me in awhile, don’t even think about it twice. Just call me.

Oh, and, "Mr. T-Shirt Authority," thank you again for a very nice dinner. If you are in the area again, give me a call. And, if we do come out your way, I'll be sure to stop by, even though you may not hear from me regularly between now and then. I am just not very good at that part.

Thanks for understanding.

I hope everyone else understands too.