Hello. Remember Me? It’s Your Long Lost Friend.

Texting, FaceBook messages and phone tag are the remnants of many of my close friendships. It’s not that we don’t want to get together; it’s just that we can’t even get a hold of each other to have a five minute phone call. For instance, I have a friend who works night shifts at the hospital from 7 pm to 7 am. When I try to call her during my lunch break at noon, she’s still sleeping. If she calls me after her shift, I’m busy chasing after my toddler.

Unfortunately grown-up stuff like jobs, spouses and kids all take precedent over our friendships with people who once knew our daily schedule intimately. In high school we took for granted all the time we spent with friends – at school, after school, on the weekends. Heck, we even had time to write each other notes everyday on top of it all. It all seemed so easy. Now planning a simple coffee date involves three voicemails and several text messages to organize a one hour rendezvous two weeks from now.

Good times back in the day.

But now the rare times you actually get together with friends seems more special — you all know that you may not see each other for a few months so you know you better make this visit good. Being busy also forces you to prioritize your social calendar. So-so friends often fall to the wayside for dates with your nearest and dearest.

Re-connecting and staying in touch with friends is a lot easier if everyone is cell-phone friendly. I for one am one of those jerks that always miss calls. Try as I may to have my phone glued to my hand to answer phone calls, the phone always seems to ring right when I’m in the bathroom, or have my hands deep in a poopy diaper. (I firmly believe other people just have impeccably poor timing.)

But the least I can do to keep my friendships alive is to set aside a couple hours of my time once a week to re-connect. I promise to pick up the phone if I’m not on the can, or changing a diaper.

So Sunday evenings after dinner call me if you’re free. I’ll be waiting.

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