Here's to friends

I've been terribly productive today. I finally cleared out that cupboard for my boyfriend (he's been confined to one chest of drawers since we moved in together over a year ago, bad me!), and I got back in touch with a good friend I've not seen in years.

I won't bore with the details, but about 7 or 8 years ago was a bad time for me. A very good friend died under tragic and surprising circumstances, and shortly after that I fell out with most of my close group of friends due to the actions of one horrible and malicious girl.

I didn't feel like I had anyone to speak to, but there were a few good friends who stuck by me. They were good friends with everyone in the group, and despite constant pressure to end our friendship from these others, they stuck by their guns and basically let it be known that they were going to be friends with whomever they damn well pleased. Possibly with more swearing.

I haven't thought about this in ages, because I've got a totally different life now than I did then. I'm not into the hardcore partying like I used to be, and now I'm happy to concentrate on real life (my job, my boyfriend, uni) rather than getting blitzed every night of the week like I now some of that group still do.

Last night, I was procrastinating and looking up folk on Facebook...and came across one of these 3 amazing guys who basically got me through a tough couple of years. The bizarre thing was, before all that shit kicked off way back when, we only knew each other through that same group of people. He'd been to parties at my flat, and he was pretty good friends with my friend Kat who died - but we'd only ever spoken at parties. Then after everything kicked off, he started messaging me on MSN. Nothing major, just chatting, as we were always up early doors in the morning, before the rest of the world woke up. There was never anything in it, but he was a good mate who was always up for a good chat. We even started hanging out in person sometimes, and I just have a random memory of bringing him a boiled ham one day.

It's good to get in touch. I don't know why we lost touch - it was around the time I moved house I think. We just started talking like it hadn't been 5 years. Isn't it great when you have friends like that? It could be a couple hours or half a decade, but you never have problems finidning something to talk about. Even if it's something silly, in my case!

A couple weeks ago, I ran into another of the guys out walking with my boyfriend and our puppy. He was on his way home from work on one of the sunniest days of the year so far, and I just heard someone call my name. The last time I saw him, I'd stopped off at his new flat on my way home from work, bringing him homemade cookies that were gum-numbingly gingerbread. That was maybe three years ago. This is the guy who was the only person who understood - really understand - how I felt when Kat died. We'd had our differences before, but when it happened he was the only person I could properly speak to. On his next birthday, I took him out for drinks because I wasn't allowed to come to his flat (by decree of his flatmates); we had a fabulous time, and I sent him home to pass out from whiskey overload before dinner.

They've been very good to me, and I've missed them. My life has changed so much since that time when things were so shitty and didn't look like they would ever get better. They are still amazing people, and I'm happy to have them back in my life again.

Wow, that was sappy.