Last night I was on the phone with my friend Jenni for about an hour.  It wasn't an unusual night. In fact, I would say conversations that last that long make up the majority of our phone calls.  I figured it out, and I've been friends with Jen for almost 25 years.  Some of that we spent in high school, so we didn't call each other as much.  But once we went on to the real world, the calling became somewhat ridiculous.  When I was living in Salt Lake, and she was still in Nebraska, Jenni would often call after I got off work (at around 11 p.m.) and sometimes we'd talk until the wee hours of the morning.  At that time, cell phones weren't as common as they are now, and we'd be calling long-distance on a land line.  I remember Jenni's mom and my mom talking about how big their daughters' phone bills were.  For Jenni and me, it was a small price to pay for keeping in touch.

The cell phone era has only encouraged our calling. Now, it's so easy to hit speed dial and call her up for the littlest of reasons.  If I have a funny story to tell her,  or she has to "vent" something to me, we don't wait for our long conversations to discuss it.  It's a good thing Jenni went with me to Ireland,  or I might have been calling her long distance from there telling her about all the cool things I was seeing!

I have asked Jenni to be the Maid of Honor at my wedding.  This opens up an entirely new list of things for us to talk about. Last night I finally asked her, "Does it drive you nuts that I call you about small details?"  She was kind and said "no", but I'm sure I've gotten on her last nerve a time or two.  When we talk, I keep singing the praises of Sioux Falls, hoping she'll just decide to move here.  In the meantime, we've always got the phone.