We tried, yesterday, to figure out the longest we'd ever gone without seeing each other. I could probably figure it out if pressed, with a combination of old journal entries and daytimer pages. We had a couple of guesses, a few memories of long waits between visits. This was definitely up there, though. Four months nearly to the day since the last time I saw my best friend.

I went down on Monday evening, driving down the endless highway and grumbling about it most of the way. I thought about taking the bus but decided I'd rather spend the extra money on doing goofy things with Jana, so I crossed my fingers and hoped my little car would hold out. (Which it did, fortunately.) I called Jana part way down to inform her that we either had to move to the same city or live in two cities that were separated by a more interesting highway.

Still, it was worth it. We had two full days, more than we've had without some other committment (like, oh, a wedding) in a long time. They had supper ready for me when I got there, and we looked at pictures from their trip to Europe. (The main reason I haven't seen her in four months: two of them were spent in Europe.) Tuesday, I slept in rather disgracefully late, then we went out for lunch and bummed around like we used to do before we had to schedule our visits. It was great. We watched a movie and goofed around and talked. Oh, how we talked. I don't talk to anyone else like I talk to Jana. There are some who come close, but nobody manages to be quite the same.

Wednesday, we got up and went shopping for a while, then decided to go play the imaginary rich game. We drove out to the suburbs and hit the show homes.

It was way more fun than I expected it to be. The houses were incredible - our favourite was an absolute monster that cost 2.2 million dollars. Clearly I'll have to get on that best-selling novel. God, it was a beautiful house. But even better than the house was wandering through it with my best friend, imagining living there, planning what we'd do with the extra bedrooms, discussing who would take which floor if we bought the house together. We then went home and watched two incredibly cheesey girly movies, made dinner, and lounged around. We talked, laughed, and sat in companiable silence. There was never a moment where I had to try to think of something to say, or a moment where I said something I shouldn't have. It was never awkward or unfamiliar - the four months without seeing each other just melted away.

Almost eight years now we've been friends, and we've never fought once. Given my temper and propensity for starting stupid arguments, that's pretty damn impressive. And while I hate that we don't live in the same city, part of me thinks that's why our relationship is so good. We don't have the chance to get complacent, or lazy, or tired of each other. Every time we see each other, we have to get our fill of each other as much as we can. Here's to another 70 years of friendship.