A blast from the past

So I was sitting here, waiting to do a phone interview for work, and my phone rang. It scared me so bad, I almost fell off my chair. But that's not the interesting part, although it was pretty funny to see me jump a mile high over the ringing phone. At least my cat was amused, anyway.

I always check caller ID before I answer. We get some really weird calls for the people who used to have this phone number. So now, if I don't know the number, I don't answer. Well, I didn't recognize the number. But something told me to answer it. So I did.

It was an old friend that I haven't seen in over 5 years. In fact, I think the last time I saw her was at my wedding. We've been friends since the 4th grade, but once I got married and moved away, I admit, we drifted apart. Some of that was my fault, but some of it was hers, too.

While it was great to hear from her, I felt a bit awkward at first. My friend was always a little abrasive when it came to asking personal questions. Within the first 5 minutes of our call, she had asked if my child was "normal," if my marriage was on the rocks or if it was OK and if I was happy with my freelancing job. When I answered all of those things in the positive sense, she seemed disappointed. Then she flat out asked me if I was unhappy in any way, like she needed me to be miserable or something. It just seemed....odd. Yes, I have some challenging situations going on right now. But I wouldn't say I'm miserable and depressed. It was like my friend was hoping I was miserable and depressed. It was very weird. But then I remembered that that was just who she was, always prying and always asking for information that most people would recognize was not within the normal comfort zone of conversation. I accepted it a long time ago. But I had definitely forgotten what it was like to be grilled about my happiness. Hopefully the next time she calls, we can focus more on the positive than the negative.