Smells Like True Friendship

I am blessed to have many people in my life I consider friends.  They've come into my life in all sorts of ways -- through school, work, hockey, or even other friends.   Depending on how we're acquainted, we have different levels of interaction.  Some things we share, some things we don't.  Some friendships instantly feel like they've existed forever, and some take time to establish.

Sometimes you find friends that are practically an extension of you -- as essential as one of your own limbs.   They almost know you better than you know yourself.  They're the kind of friends that can finish your sentences, know from the tone of your voice that something is wrong, or feel something in the air one day that makes them pick up the phone from 3,000 miles away and call just when you need it.

That friend is Michelle.

We met in college, and our connection was instant.  The finishing each others sentences thing has always been there, and it makes us look at each other and laugh in recognition when it happens.   Our mutual friends from school have difficulty talking about one of us without mentioning the other.  "Where are Meg and Michelle?"  "What are Meg and Michelle doing tonight?" 

She knows more about me than any person on the planet, and she remembers EVERYTHING.  So I shouldn't have been surprised when a got a call from her this summer in the middle of the day.

"Hey, sorry to bug you at work, but what's the name of that perfume you loved so much but can't find anymore?"

"Huh?  What perfume?"

"You know.  It's gold...something...maybe the box is gold?  Did the name have gold in it?"

"You mean Valentino Gold?"

"Bingo!"

"NO WAY!!!!!!"

"Yup! I found it.  They have 3 boxes.  How many do you want...I'll send them to you."

"You just found the last 3 boxes of my favorite perfume ON EARTH?  I'll take them all!!!"

"Perfect!  Gotta go....LOVE YOU!"

Bear in mind, I can't even remember when we ever had a conversation about my perfume.  It might have been late at night over a bottle of wine, enjoying each others company so much we couldn't stand the idea of sleep.  We might have been shopping once.   I had long since forgotten I even missed the stuff, yet she remembered it meant something to me once AND scoured every nook and cranny of New York City looking for it.

So after a failed attempt to mail me my bottled magic (wait, you can't mail perfume because it's flammable? DOH!), she made extra space in her suitcase and delivered it to me in when we met up back at JMU for our annual Alumni Band Weekend.

Now every morning, I look at the graceful gold bottle on the vanity tray in my bathroom and am reminded what a true and undying friendship I'm blessed to have.  The fact that I smell nice is just a bonus.