Omaha, Somewhere in Middle America

I write about visiting Omaha all the time. It feels like my second hometown and it is Joe's original hometown. It seems like we are there every six to eight weeks. But somehow time vanished, and we realized we hadn't been up in 2012 at all. So we remedied that a couple of weeks ago.

We missed our friends and family there. It had been too long. So we came up for two days of meals spent with people who make us laugh. People who draw on walls. People who loved having their first ride in a convertible. People who still find bathroom humor fresh and funny. People we love to spend time with.

Looking at these gorgeous photos that Joe took that weekend got me all sentimental and sappy. I promise I've kept the Nicholas Sparks style treacle to a minimum. And there isn't a whole blog post here that I haven't written before, nothing amazing or unique or dramatic happened on our visit. This post, it turns out, which was supposed to be about Omaha, is really just about friends. It's about how those little easy dinners and lunches and evenings spent with friends can zip by. We talk and play outside with the kids and catch up. And then the time has passed. The evening or the meal is over and we add that to our memory of times spent with the people we like, the people who get us, and make us laugh. And while those individual evenings and lunches and hours spent together eventually blur into each other over the years, they build up and create something more lasting. They create and sustain our friendships.  

Since this blog is essentially a digital scrapbook of moments and thoughts and times I don't want to forget, I wanted to share these photos that Joe took of our friends that weekend. I wanted to say how important my friendships are, in all their varied sizes and shapes and lengths and intimacy levels. People say that family is what's most important, that blood is the binding factor in our lives, and this is mostly true. But the people you choose to have in your life are equally as important. Those people, to me, are a different kind of family. I verge into Sparks territory here, but it's the truth.

I often take for granted the tribe of friends that Joe and I have strung together across the world. Not everyone has that blessing.  From those friends whose kitchen tables we sit at almost weekly over pizza and too much wine, to those friends we haven't even met in person yet, there is something of significant value in these relationships. Something different with each one, but something that makes me a smarter, funnier, more compassionate person with each one. So I wanted to tell you, thank you, friend, for being in my life. Thank you for being exactly who you are, because I need you.  

So I leave you to look at cute pictures of cute kids doing cute stuff. They are our friends too. And they have the best fart jokes. They have the most delightful giggles. They do a pretty darn good job at Draw Something. And they can even correct us on our pronunciation of "edamame."