One of my oldest friends, Amber, was in the area this week so Joe and I met up with her and her Daughter at Downtown Disney. We ate at Rainforest Cafe and I tipped off our server that it was Amber’s birthday (well it was the next day anyway) and made no mention to Amber that I even remembered when her birthday is. She was surprised when they came out singing with a volcano dessert of brownie, hot fudge, whipped cream and vanilla icecream…YUM!

I met Amber the day we moved from Huntington Beach to San Jose. I was 4-years-old and had noticed her playing on the street. She seemed to be about my age so my family encouraged me to go over to her house to talk to her. It’s hard to believe, maybe, but I can be pretty shy when meeting new people. It took every ounce of my being to go over there but when she got to the door I explained that we’d just moved in, saw her playing, and figured we could be friends. We were best friends growing up and kind of grew apart in Junior High school but always managed to stay friends.

I remember that we’d walk to elementary school together. She lived down at the end of our cul-de-sac so she’d walk towards my house to sort of pick me up on the way. Amber is always on time. She would leave her house at the same exact time each day and it must have been like 8:00am on the nose or something because I would watch the opening song to “The Great Space Coaster” and knew that when the song was done, Amber would be on the sidewalk at my house. Silly memory…but my head is full of detailed crap like this. Scary, I know.

Amber has raised a beautiful, intelligent daughter and it was wonderful to spend some time talking with her on this visit. I haven’t seen her since she was a baby…which makes me feel old, of course! Joe and I had a great visit with them and look forward to their return this Summer. Maybe we’ll be in our new digs by then?