Life's better when you have an old friend

My oldest friend in the world is John.  And by oldest, I don't mean literally he's the oldest, because he's only 34, but oldest in that our friendship is going on 27 years now.  He lives in Hawaii so I don't see him a lot but his brother, who I have also known for 27 years, lives in CO Springs and once or twice a year, John finds himself in the Springs and so I find myself there too.

It's great to have a friend who has known you at every stage of your life and yet still enjoys spending time with you.  John is like the best pair of jeans I've ever owned and he makes me laugh like nobody else, partly because we have decades of material to work from.  I hate that I only get 8 or 10 hours with him once or twice a year but I'll take what I can get.  He's always been there when I've needed a friend, whether I was 7 or 16 or 32.  He gives great advice and always directs me back to God.

Here's a look at me and John through the years. 

This is my 7th birthday party.  Note how John is stuffing his face with ice cream instead of watching me open my presents.  Not much has changed since then, except that I get fewer presents these days and John eats more ice cream.

In the early years, John and I would play 1 of 2 games.  Either we would play "Land of the Lost", which involved running around my backyard and screaming loudly while throwing sticks, or we would play "Spy", which involved sneaking into my neighbor's house and belly crawling around trying to not be seen.  This game was sadly put to an end when my neighbor told my mom what we were doing.  Apparently it's not polite to just sneak into other people's houses and hide from them.  Whatever.

This is me around age 9.  While I don't have a picture of John from this time period, suffice to say he was as awesome, if not more so, than I was.  This was the year we went to summer camp together, where apparently his cabin spent the whole week spraying bug spray in each other's eyes to see who was toughest.  I spent the week learning Bible verses and singing songs.

My family, and subsequently life, fell apart between ages 10-11 for me, and I didn't see John again until my freshman year in high school, but it was pure magic when we were reunited again.

Now that you've seen this photo, we have to kill you.

High school was officially the spy era.  Mostly, John would spy and then call me the next day to tell me about it because I was too scared I would get in trouble if I joined in any of his shenanagins.  We even gave each other spy names.  Mine was 003 and his was Secret Agent John.  We still call each other by these names today.

This was my version of an artistic head shot when I was 15.

We rafted the Jemez river in a pool raft, considered frosted animal crackers a worthy meal option, and played water poker in his front yard.  When I got grounded, John organized a sit-in with my friends in my driveway.  He also liked curling my hair, so we did that a lot too. 

But all good things must end.

John graduated a year before I did and left me alone at LAHS for my senior year. Jerk. But we both look really good in this picture.

John was a year older than me and went off to college.  Luckily, the internet was invented around this time, so we stayed in touch via this new-fangled thing called "email."  And there were adventures to be had at Christmas and summer breaks.

We may have lived in a town full of rocket scientists, but that didn't mean we knew how to work the photo booth at the mall.

I almost followed John to college but chickened out at the last minute.  I had a scholarship to Luther and everything.  It's complicated why I didn't go, but it's the biggest regret I have, not so much the not following John part but that I stayed close to home for those 4 years instead of going out into the world.  Sometimes I wonder what my life would look like today if I had chosen the other way.  But I believe in a God who works all things out for good, and me not going to Luther didn't throw the world off kilter.

John used to wear Old Spice deodorant.  Best smell in the world. As you can see, I'm about armpit height. He would shove my face into his armpit on a regular basis to make me smell how good he smelled. That's what friends are for.

Life happened.  His mom moved away so he stopped coming to New Mexico after awhile and eventually moved to Hawaii.  I moved to Colorado and figured I would never see him again.  But one day on a whim, I put my spy skills to use and found an email address for his sister, who was working at Luther at the time, and she put me back in touch with him.  Then we discovered facebook, and the rest is history.

My semi-annual day in the Springs with John and his nieces is a highlight now for me.  Sometimes we go to Chuck E. Cheese's, where we can be kids too, but yesterday we just played driveway volleyball and Monopoly Deal and bored everyone with stories of our youth.  After 27 years, he's still one of my favorite people to play with, and I'm counting down the days until Christmas break.

003 and Secret Agent John.  Undisclosed location.  This picture will self-destruct in 10 seconds.  So will your face.

Who's your oldest friend?