Tick Tock Goes the Clock

Timing is a funny thing. Ever the skeptic, even I have difficulty denying that the universe steps in at just the right time every now and then. Also the wrong time, but that's another matter all together. I got an e-mail from my dear friend who's been on (another) year-long nomadic adventure, saying he'll be back in Denver before I move. Now that's universal intervention.

I've been madly trying to arrange time with everyone I know and love before my departure to Texas and I'm finding that coordinating this effort, working full time, packing, and attempting sleep are... tough. I wonder how much of my mental energy is being devoted to planning all of it instead of enjoying the moments I can manage. Note to self: Enjoy the time you have instead of worrying about the time you don't.

I am really trying to cherish my last few weeks with my friends and family. My lifelong friend Jane and I ran the Bolder Boulder 10K today on a total whim. In keeping with our long history of ridiculous behavior, we not only managed to finish in the absence of any running skill or training, but we also managed to have a total blast despite rain, cold, and muscle cramping.

Jane and I (Statler and Waldorf) looking back at the finish line

There hasn't been a time in my life I've not lived within an hour's drive of someone I've known most of my life, and I feel so fortunate to even have the ability to say that. Only recently have I've realized how truly rare it is to maintain friendships from grade school into adulthood. Inevitably, between the ages of 8 and 26 people tend to change rather significantly. Sure, I count many people who've come and gone during this period, but I also count a fair number who epitomize the promise "I'll always be there for you." However irrational, I have entertained the worry that in moving more than an hour's drive from these people that somehow I'll lose that. It's made my last few weeks a little bittersweet as I've been enjoying time with people but always with a whisper of "This is the last time you'll..." in my ear.

Speaking of time, five years is more than I can comprehend right now. But that's the thing about trying to "comprehend" time... and by comprehend I mean envision what could possibly happen in a given period of time. I remember being in grade school and feeling like a year was an eternity! Now I feel like an old woman ranting about how quickly time passes and suddenly I'm 26 and still wondering when I get to decorate my Valentine's Day shoebox for the class party.