Friends

When the word friends comes to mind, I think of Lucy and Ethel from "I Love Lucy" or "Laverne & Shirley." I once had a friend, who I used to share my favorite moments with up until about five years ago.


For a while now, I wasn't sure if I wanted to write about this subject, but it's been on my mind lately. Recently, a close relative of mine had become friends with this "former" friend of mine on a highly popular social networking website. What I found ironic was the fact that this friend, who was like a sister to me, never bothered to contact me. Honestly, I've known her forever and we used to do everything together, such as go out to dinner or go on vacation. My mother considers this friend's mother as one of her best friends. For my last birthday, her mother brought me flowers and my favorite dessert! I tried re-connecting with this friend two months prior to that--for her birthday--but never heard from her.

Rewind back to late April 2008, which was the last time I saw or had any contact with her. Since she had moved in with her boyfriend four years earlier, she had pretty much lost all contact with her closest friends. My feelings got slightly hurt this last time. We went out to dinner at our favorite restaurant because we hadn't been in contact for several months. We started talking about different things and just as we were getting served, I told her that my first article was getting published. She didn't really say anything after that. I mean, I wasn't expecting her to say "congratulations," but I thought she'd be just a little happy for me. I mean, we were like sisters!

From what I've heard, she spends her time mostly traveling with her b/f (for pleasure and for his work--they both work for the same company) and following his hobbies or spending time with his parents (incidentally, her b/f is an only child). Occasionally, we'd see each other when her parents would invite my family over for parties (our families have known each other for over 30 years); however, at these functions, I often found myself having conversations with her brother because she was spending most of the time entertaining her b/f and his parents.

I truly feel that communication works both ways and I stopped communicating with her altogether when she no longer made the effort to stay in contact.

So the last couple of weeks I've been saying to myself, "I just can't believe she's communicated with...(my relative)." However, this morning the same thought came to mind when I opened my e-mail and noticed one from her! This is what she wrote:

Happy New Year! Long time no talk, I hope you had a great birthday and x-mas. I wanted to reconnect and do lunch or dinner. I've had so much going on at work and personally and now realize I have isolated myself from everyone.

Right now I'm thinking of what to write back to her. I don't want to come off as angry or hurt, but I'm uncertain if our friendship is salvageable. As the saying goes, "it's easy to forgive, but not to forget."