Together on Tuesday - Staying In Touch

Happy Tuesday, All!  I hope that everyone had a wonderful and safe Memorial Day weekend!  Mark and I had the opportunity to spend time with some great friends over the weekend...some pool time (THANK YOU Gidget & Michael for having us over Saturday - you are wonderful pool party hosts!), as well as some lake time.  Of course we also got in our fair share of cookouts as well.  All in all, it was a GREAT weekend.  We 'played' most of the weekend, so my house is a bit of a mess...but I've got all week to get that back in order...right?? 

This week, we are discussing how we keep in contact with our friends...old ones, new ones, and all those in between!  What methods do we use most often to keep in touch, do we have regularly scheduled get-togthers?  How have we kept our longest lasting friendships going all these years??

This is a pretty sporatic thing for me.  I don't have one particular way that I keep in touch with everyone.  A lot of that has to do with my own preferences as well as the other person.  For instance, I don't really talk on the phone that much (confession:  for some reason that I cannot explain, I hate voicemail...I can't tell you why, but I do...I am horrible about checking messages.  Typically if I see that I have a message from someone, I'll just call the person back rather than listen to the voicemail), and I am not good at keeping up with e-mail, and some people prefer that...but I do like using Facebook as a way to stay in touch and I am more likely to text than call...and I know that some people find that impersonal (which I understand).  I have also taken notice over the years that some people are just easier to stay in contact with...specifically, I am referring to the ability to pick back up after not talking for a while.  Some friends have been amazingly easy to just sort of always 'pick back up wherever we left off' and others, not so much.  I have also found that the friends that I have stayed in long-distance touch with the longest are actually those friends with whom I can really easily just pick back up where we left off.  It is unfortunate, but the truth is simply that sometimes, life just happens...and before you know it, time has passed by...usually more than I would like...before I have realized how long it has been.  It is nothing personal, its just life (or...'Just Living' as fellow 'Together on Tuesday' blogger Sarah has so appropriately titled her blog).  Some people are more sensitive about this...they end up feeling slighted or snubbed in some way - I can assure you, that is never my intention.  Then as I mentioned before, there are others who are in the same boat as me and we are just happy for those times when we are able to make our crazy schedules connect for a phone call, visit, etc...

I will say that Facebook has made it MUCH easier to keep up with a lot of people and being able to keep up with them all in one place gives Facebook the efficiency advantage.  Currently, Facebook is probably the most common way that I keep in contact with people.  It is the one place where I can gather up and provide updates to people from all facets of my life, whether it is folks I grew up with, college buddies, friends we've moved away from (or have had move away from us), or former or current co-workers and friends that I see regularly.  Facebook has provided a great forum and has provided the opportunity to keep in daily touch with current friends that live in other cities as well as reconnect with friends that I had lost touch with over time.  And besides...how else are all of you going follow all of my CRAZY dog stories???

My friend Elizabeth is the friend that I have managed to stay in touch with the longest...AND...across the longest distance as well.  We have been friends since around first grade, so we have known each other for a very long time.  After leaving Indiana, she had lived in San Antonio, but then moved to Alaska last summer - which of course makes traveling between here and there longer and more expensive.  But, I am fortunate that her family still lives nearby, so when she makes it home to visit them (typically around Christmas) we make a point to set aside time to see each other - which is only once a year right now.  So everytime she comes home we plan to have lunch or dinner and we usually find ourselves sitting in a restaurant talking literally for hours.  We always let the waiter or waitress know when we get there that this is our ONE time per year visit, and that we will be there for a while!  You would be surprised how accomodating they are once they hear that this is all the time we get in person until next year.  Of course, it is always sad to say goodbye at the end of the evening with her.  I always want to refuse to let go when we hug goodbye in hopes that she'll stay! 

Mark and I also like to go up to visit our friends in Bloomington as often as we can - although, that is not nearly as often as we'd like.  While we are there, we usually try and do the whirlwind tour to make sure we see everyone at least a little bit while we are there.  We also have a  great group of friends here in Louisville that we get together with on a regular basis.  Typically several of us will get together and grab drinks and/or dinner about once a week.  It is nice to have a great group of friends here that we can share some laughs with and sometimes even commiserate our way through the work week with from time to time! 

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So, now that I am feeling a bit guilty about not doing a better job keeping in contact with some of you great, wonderful folks...I must ask...how do you keep in touch with everyone?  Is there something you do that I'm not...and you think that I should???  Do tell!