It's Saturday! Lies- it's totally Friday and I have this post scheduled to post on Saturday because I am anticipating my Saturday being so completely awesome that I don't step anyway near my computer. Actually, that is also a lie because I love my computer and my life wouldn't be awesome without him (yes, him) in it.
But, for about a year now I haven't had Saturdays off. And for the past couple of months, I had been working a Friday shift of 6pm-7am and then trucking back in 6 hours later to do another shift til 9pm. I hated it. I would wake up on Thursday (my day off) and wonder where the hell the week went. I'm spoiled, I love my Saturdays. My poor boyfriend has been working his tail off every Saturday for like 10 years, but he's made of stronger stuff than me. I'm an American. I need my Saturdays to drive around aimlessly until I find a yard sale in which I can voyeuristically rummage through other people's curbside junk and bargain down a $1 mattress pad because it's what I know and it is, quite frankly, in my DNA.
And I'm also on Day 3 of my
30 Day Blog Challenge. It's incredibly difficult for me to commit to anything longer than 7 hours so please, please be impressed with me.
Day 3 asks for A picture of you and your friends. Awwww.
So all my friends live in other countries. Not even exaggerating a little. Sure, I have Moose and Pedro (my BFF for life, we're working on getting matching necklaces but can't seem to decide on one we both like!) but other than that, all of my good girl friends live in Europe and Israel and a few scattered in between.
I wasn't very good at keeping my friends in high school. I just felt so different from everyone I grew up with so that when I went to college I just got lost and never really came back to my previous life. Sometimes I regret it because I am now back in my hometown and have no one to text, but I also kind of don't because I was so different back then and when I did go back to see old friends, I felt myself forcing myself to become that old person and I was always relieved to have an excuse to head home early.
Then in college, I failed in friendships. I did really well short-term, but not really longterm. I made one best friend, which more than compensated a thousand times over for all the shitty ones in between. I had such a hard time making friends that I worried I would never really have any. Then I moved to Israel, lived on a kibbutz and made such incredibly strong friendships that are still my cornerstone today. Sure, it may be years before I see them and we can go months without talking but I know if I pick up the phone (and trust me, I have) and give them a call, they will pick up and pick me up. And it's perfect for my 3AM meltdowns because it's already 10AM over there so the time difference kinda helps!
So without further ado, I present this picture (sorry for the weird effects, I couldn't find the original):
This picture was taken in August 2012. My friend Melissa's mother had just passed and I was heartbroken. I wanted to give her a hug and I was generally in a bad place myself and needed my girls. Impulsively, I booked a plane ticket for the next week and flew out to Tel Aviv for three weeks. This is a picture from the night I surprised Mel and these are my girls. Halfway across the world, but always in my heart. </cheesiness>
But friendship is constantly something I think about. Sometimes I do feel lonely here. In all honesty, I don't have any friends here. The last time I did go out to see a friend was back in... October? Or earlier, it was before the holidays (the Jewish ones). Point being- it was a looooonnng time ago.
And despite my lack of physical friends, I don't ever feel lonely. Loneliness really only hits me once a month, the same time my lovely period does and a deluge of every other single emotion known to man. But I'm lucky. I have my great Mom whose my best friend, Moose who is always fun to hang out with and of course, my boyfriend. And I have Netflix. What else can a girl ask for?
