Some People Feel Like Home

About a month ago Jodi emailed me and told me she'd be coming to California for a conference. She wasn't sure if it was in Sacramento or San Diego, she'd heard conflicting stories, but she wondered if she could see me. Well, there's about a 10+ hour distance between those two cities and I live somewhere on between, so I told her if it was Sacramento I could definitely swing it. She booked her flight to land Saturday morning rather than Sunday night and we quickly started counting down the days.

If you don't remember, I met Jodi a few months after we moved to Colorado and, along with Kaila, we had an instantaneous trio of fun. We hit it off from the start and we always talked about how it felt like we'd been friends forever - or at least we felt like we were made to be friends. Of all the things that made leaving Colorado hard, Jodi and Kaila rank at the top of that list. So you can imagine my excitement when I found out I was just a short 2 hour drive away from seeing her!

Sometime the week before her arrival I found out it was actually a 3-3.5 hour drive. But did I care? Not in the slightest. I just scheduled my Saturday morning run a little earlier, took a fast shower and hit the road around 9:00. 3 hours later my arms were wrapped around Jodi's neck and 4 hours after that we found ourselves enjoying the cloudy sunset at pebble beach. 

We spent the evening laughing at memories, talking about life as if we see each other daily, planning trips for the next 64 years and ensuring there would be bagpipers at our funerals.

Sunday we went to church where Jodi filled in as a volunteer at kids church with us - the coordinator loved her! Then we spent the afternoon at the aquarium before making our way back up to Sac (that's what the locals call it!)

Our drive back to Sacramento was just as fun as the rest of our time - laughing and talking like the best of friends. We had dinner downtown where we were almost certain we were going to be mugged for our leftovers (Sacramento is a little sketch) and we hugged goodbye with tear filled eyes in the hotel lobby.

Traffic on the way back was horrendous. I counted the hours and I spent 14.5 hours driving in a 40 hour window, and I got home at 1:00am on a Sunday night. And you know what? If Jodi called and said she would be back in Sac next weekend I'd do it all again. It was well worth the time, miles and gas to see her even if only for a day. Some people just have that special ability to make you feel like you're home, no matter where you are.