"It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I realize I may be in the minority here, but I actually still hang out with my high school friends. It doesn't happen often enough, and I'm not always the best at staying in touch, but I made really, really great friends in high school - who are still really, really great friends 13 years later.

I value all my friends for different reasons, but there is nothing like the friends I've known since high school. These are the friends who knew me in the height of my awkward phase, the friends who know my family, the friends who still remember my first kiss and all my other embarrassing stories, and the first friends I called from my college dorm (on a landline...the stone ages.) They are friends I can pick right back up with, the friends who will forgive my flaws and mistakes, and friends who will always be there for me.

Today, I enjoyed being able to comfortably binge on crab cakes, blueberry pancakes and cheesecake (didn't realize until now that the entire meal consisted of cakes...), catch up, and reminisce about both our high school history teacher AND our driving instructor with one of my oldest friends. Even though we now talk about work, retirement plans and health insurance rather than exams, papers and the musical, it often seems like no time has passed at all.