Yesterday I was driving with my good friend Elysia who we all call Wong (it’s her last name) and we were just talking about life and just frankly shooting the ______.  We got on the conversation of blogging and I was telling her how most times I feel awkward when I write blog posts.  There are times when I’m totally inspired and feel confident with what I’m writing and there are other times when I just feel like I’m talking into a void and it feels… weird.

She gave me some really honest feedback that I really needed to hear.  She said “You know Alex sometimes, it just doesn’t sound like you.  It’s missing your spunk and that touch of sass”.  I knew it was true, and it really was what I needed to hear because that’s why it feels awkward sometimes writing blog posts because I don’t know how to write the way I talk…

I said to her I really wish I could just do posts in which I feel like I’m talking to an old friend, you know just… shooting the _______.  And in case you haven’t picked up yet, the _______s definitely mean breeze… looks like I caught some of you thinking something else eh?  In any case, back to the point… I think this is what I have to do sometimes is just… talk to you like you aren’t a void but as if you are an old friend.

Which brings me to my first blog post from the series “Fuzzy Sock Talk”.  I knew that Shooting the ________ (breeze) wasn’t exactly the most professional title so I went with Fuzzy Sock Talk.  If you know me, you know that I love fuzzy socks.  I have an entire container at home full of them.  My mom every year asks me “Alex, what do you want for your birthday?” and my answer…. fuzzy socks.  So it only makes sense that if we’re going to sit down like old friends and talk… I’ll be wearing some fuzzy socks, and you should too because honestly it feels like your feet are wrapped in pillows.  If you don’t have any yet?  Go to Target (they have the best in my opinion) and treat yourself to some five dollar fuzzy socks.  Mine right now, aren’t even matching… seriously it’s not about looks for me over here, it’s all about the feeling of having my feet in a cloud.

So… newly acquired old friend let’s chat.

Right now I’m sitting in the house of one of my oldest friends Sarah Catherine, with, one of my other oldest friends Wong.  In case you’re just tuning in, I’m currently driving across the country with my camp friend Wong (who you can call Elysia if you’d rather since you don’t know her as well).  We’re in Nashville!  We got here last night, ordered delivery Mexican food, which to be honest I didn’t know existed and have always secretly wanted…. Richmonders, help me find this!  We played cards, giggled, blew up the air mattresses and giggled some more while watching Friends and drifting to sleep.

When I say that these are old friends I mean old friends.  The kind that have known me since I was 12, seen me pee my pants at flag raising (yes it happened, and no I’m not embarrassed) and more importantly know the answer to “Which Friends character are you?”  Whenever people ask me that question, I never really know what to say because I think I’m a mix of Phoebe and a little Monica but maybe a little Rachel too.  Welp last night it came to us, I’m Ross.  Yeah, bringing the boys into the mix.  It’s true though!  I’m a little spastic, have a face that reads like a book, love science (and definitely a nerd too), sometimes think I’m always right….(maybe? …  friends? …. should we poll?)  and goofy.

These friends, the ones that can pin point which Ross moves are ones that I, Alex Robertson, would also do… have not changed since we were 15 and 16 and so when we’re together, everything is the same.  When Wong and I were driving yesterday and would get into these giggle fits, I honestly just felt so blessed.  I’ve had really good friendships in my life, and I don’t mean that to brag but I mean it in a truly grateful way.  As you get older though, you just don’t have time to text or call or giggle with them all the time. Which is a shame because giggling like a 15 year old over silly memories is the best.  I’ve had some good friends that have moved away or who I haven’t been good about staying in touch with but, the best part about the old friends, the true friends, is that no matter how long it has been or how far away they are… the jokes are still funny, the giggles are exactly the same and everything falls perfectly back into place because we’re puzzled together.

I think about friends this way, if my life is a puzzle and as I go through it I figure out more pieces and put it all together.  These old true friends are pieces that are already perfect fits, they are embedded in the image that is still being pieced together.  You wouldn’t remove them because, then you’re puzzle has a huge hole in it (duh) but also because no other piece is meant to or could fit in the image the way that they do.  Some friends, don’t even have to be old friends, but you feel like you’ve had the puzzle piece forever and have just recently fit it into the puzzle.

For my friends, who I love, my camp friends, my Baltimore friends, my Richmond friends, my JMU friends, my work friends and more, thanks for being in my puzzle 🙂

So it’s time for me to take off the fuzzy socks and go see Nashville… good talk, old friend.

Note: The image below is from 2003 when we were 15 years old… that was 12 years ago!  Wong is in the orange shirt and Sarah Catherine has the guitar, can you find me?