Transition

My poor baby.  She's having a rough week.  Her gang is breaking up / breaking off / growing up / growing apart.  Everyone is starting to head off to college / or the military so they all got together Thursday night for one last time.  Her friend K has to leave early for soccer.  She absolutely adores him and we are going to miss him hanging around the house.  He likes to make eggs in my kitchen for some reason.  Makes me feel good that her friends are comfortable in our home.  J usually walks in our garage and yells, "Miss Val!  I'm here!" and watches TV in the men den.  So, K is the first to go and it really, really upset her.  And as we all know, T doesn't "do" upset.  So if she has a breakdown, it's huge.
And then on top of everything else, she went to visit an former boyfriend Friday night who was in a horrifying car accident a couple of weeks ago.  They dated for a little bit but decided they would be much, much better off as friends and they still have a wonderful relationship. He has a girlfriend now who's a little immature, a little petty and absolutely hates the fact that he is still friends with T.  As a matter of fact, T woke up on her b-day morning and said, "That's weird.  He's usually the first one to wish me a happy b-day.  He always texts me at 12:01 so he could be the first."  She actually thought the girlfriend was busting his balls and wouldn't let him text T (the girlfriend made him "unfriend" all of us on FB, etc.).  Little did we know, he was fighting for his life in critical condition. 
Miraculously, he's home now so T stopped by the house to visit.  Miss Gayle luvs, luvs, luvs some T-bone and T still has a wonderful friendship with the sister, Ash.  The girlfriend is out of town so Miss Gayle called T and suggested it would be a good time to visit.  He was the passenger in the backseat, the driver lost control and hit the median.  The car flipped several times and he was pinned in the car.  Jaws of life had to be used to get him out of the car and he was airlifted to UAB.  Swelling on the brain, broken ribs, broken wrist.  You name it, he broke it.  T got home last night from their house and was absolutely hysterical.  She said she didn't want to cry in front of him but bawled the entire drive home.  It just brought back a lot of bad memories for T.  She had lost a good dance friend in a terrible accident and all these emotions just came flooding back. 

We had such a wonderful talk last night about how people change, relationships change, priorities change.  She's upset because the dynamic of their group will change.  It's all part of growing up.  I told T that the friends she thought would be there for her won't and it will disappoint the hell out of her.  And the person she also thought of as a so-so friend will step up when it matters and it will surprise the hell out of her.  I also told her that once a lot of these kids get out of their high school cliques and their comfort zones, they will be totally different.

Friends since Kindergarten

The ZachPack

These 2 knuckleheads have been friends for ever.  He raids my fridge often.