Today I drove four hours to spend two hours that felt like two minutes with some of my favorite people on the planet. We were missing half of our brood, but when it comes to face-to-face time with these women, I take what I can get. We usually settle for banter back and forth on our secret facebook group (which is something I highly recommend for connecting with a group of your long-distance besties), but in person is so much sweeter. I cried real tears on the interstate today because I was so excited to spend an afternoon just sitting talking with some of the sweetest, strongest, funniest, most-determined women I’ve been blessed to call my friends. I’m a mushy ball of emotion, but I don’t care, because this right here – this is the good stuff. It’s lifelong, long-distance, crying, laughing, cheering, hugging, just plain knowing each other even when we don’t know so much about each other any more. So I hug them when I greet them, and hug them when I leave, and damn it, I tear up when I think of them because it’s just so bittersweet.