It was a beautiful day today, with puffy thunder clouds making storms off in the distance, but azure heavens above me. Beautiful.

One of my students was talking to me today, and it seems that she may know someone from Mongolia who lives in Japan and might know my friend from Mongolia. It’s a small world, really…

But this talk, and the chapter we covered today, Friends and Acquaintances, made me lonely. Especially teaching the idiom “sight for sore eyes”. I know people here, don’t get me wrong, but it seems like there is no connection, not a deep one, anyway. There are people to hang with, but no one I trust to complain to, no shoulder to cry on when it gets rough, no one to call when I can’t stand it anymore. It’s tough.

When she asked me to explain the idiom “sight for sore eyes” I almost started tearing up, thinking about how great it would be to see my true-and-always friends again. People who’ve known you and still like you. People who’ve seen you at your best, and your worst, and were always there with an all-night smokeout, Chambord and Marlboros to the rescue, there for graduations and divorces, who miss you as much as you do them. These friends don’t have to be everyday OCD friends you spend every waking hour with, but steady rocks in the stream you can jump on if you need to, and hang on for dear life.

I miss them.