My good friend Neil is turning, gasp, a healthy 30 just after New Years, and his wife Heidi decided to plan something cool for him. A party, of sorts. Since they will be in Neil's hometown of "Luhvull," Kentucky right around Christmas, coinciding with the return home of many of their longtime friends, Heidi invited a big crew of people out for a night of celebration. Pizza and beers downtown. After a long chat with Neil last night, I decided to book a ticket, and so after not more than three days of being back, I'm scheduled to return to Kentucky.
This trip isn't about the climbing. In fact, I'm just going to be in town for a little more than 36 hours. Even so, it's hugely worth it. Neil is a closer friend to me than just about anyone else in my life, and between that bond and the fact that another close buddy, Ethan, will be there, I couldn't turn down the chance to see him at a celebration in his honor.
It isn't like Neil and I never get to see each other. In fact, I drove down to his home in Knoxville, TN while I was out in The Red. That quick hello was superficially more convenient, so in deference of the fact that he's reached a milestone, I wanted to express in my actions the fact that he means more to me than just someone who I would see while passing through.
Ethan isn't exactly a stranger, either. He and I manage to put together a yearly skiing trip, and usually find a good excuse to hang out at least one other time during a calendar year. He lives in Burlington, VT, though, and so it isn't quite as easy to happen by his house if I'm on a big climbing trip to Yosemite or The Southeast. Being both a medical resident and new father doesn't help to ease our scheduling, either. In spite of the geographical distance between us and the other easy excuses, Ethan shocks me in his ability to hop in the car or onto a plane and meet up with me regularly. He's picked me up in Chicago when my connecting flight to Louisville was canceled. He's booked enough tickets to Squaw, Jackson Hole, and Denver that I'm sure some of his other flights were paid on miles. I wanted to live up to a lot of the sacrifices he's made to get out West in an effort to keep our friendship up to date with face to face contact. As soon as I heard that he was going to be at the party as well, I had to book the flight.
It's good for me to keep up with those people who have shaped my life, made me a better and kinder person. Some of them were woven into long stretches of my life's fabric. Semesters in Spain. Seasons in New Zealand. Summers in Boulder. Other people were bursts of immediate energy that lasted only a little while, in a particular location. Still, these interactions shaped me too. The connections I have with them endures, as well.
I'll tell some of their stories soon.
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