Baseball

Day: Twenty

Photo taken on Saturday, August 21, 2010 at around 2pm in the Commack Friendly's.

I first meet Michelle in the seventh grade in Mrs. DiPiero's English class. Being that we sit in alphabetical order, the mysterious new student gets placed right in front of me and to my horror she is reading in her free time! Reading?! I tap her on her shoulder and ask her why she's reading when she could be playing cards like the rest of us. She responds, "I don't know. I like reading." This statement baffles me because who in their right mind likes to voluntarily read? So every day I make it a point to talk to her while she's trying to quietly read and thus the friendship starts.

Even though we go to different high schools, we stay close and make sure that every Tuesday and Thursday we place a call to each other to divulge juicy stage crew/theater gossip and read each other our newest screenplays or stories. When we hit adulthood our calls turn into frequent Friendly’s visits instead and we discuss everything in our lives, still including our stories that we continue to write in our free moments. Over ice cream we share laughs and sorrows as well as give each other advice to our problems we face in life.

Today might be the last time we get together at a New York Friendly's before Michelle packs up and moves herself down to Florida to start a new chapter in her life. I'll miss these trips for ice cream dearly but somehow I know Michelle and my relationship will survive the distance. No matter what we'll continue to be each other's creative sounding board and I will look forward to the next time we talk over Hunka Chunka ice cream, even if we're not in the same booth.