something mushy about friendship

I'm in the mood to write. Why? Cause I'm thinking too much to talk.

You know, even if they aren't called Friends , good sitcoms are about friends. We watch them. Follow the story lines and then in our minds play out our lives according to these thirty-minute recreations of what we're supposedly, yet obviously not, living ourselves. Maybe its the anonymous downtown apartment with its light speckled skyline bright enough to be New York, but just ambiguous enough to pass for that other city you went to once and liked better.

But wherever, it's all about the that cast of characters. You've had them hand picked from high school. You imagine the story of your freshman flubs becoming recurring themes throughout the seasons of maturity. But then, they all move away. Take two: College. You're on your own now, doing more sitcom worthy things. Sure its not the same kind of drama as high school, but this is good too. People have STDs here! So you mope about the cast revision for a little bit and promise yourself that there will be plenty of high school cameos.

Years go by and finally the hour is ripe: you've graduated! Here comes the condo and the social life unimpeded by class work! Even the cast you once thought as second string are headliners! Hell! You're even sitcom age! And then just when you least expect it, your best friend, your supporting actress moves away, jobs cause fragmentation: The show is cancelled.

WHAT THE HELL KINDA SHOW IS THIS?!

After years of envisioning this time of your life the stage is set, but the actors are on strike. Now, like it did at the beginning of high school and college, though you're ready to settle down, shit is new and unfamiliar. Now you're the new person at work and there are no school functions to force socialization and all of a sudden you face that fact that THERE IS NO SITCOM LIFE. Because if there were, you'd get to choose the people you share it with.

Yep. Joey and Chandler didn't go to college together. They have cubicles next to each other and met at work. Ross and Rachel are really just friends through other people. Phoebe just moved to the state and wants to go home. And no one knows that Monica used to be fat in high school, not even Ross, because brothers and sisters don't stick around each other that long.


And now you know why there are sitcoms in the first place. Because once your life long pals have been gone long enough, you'll need a distant reminder of what it could have been like.


~ For My Twin Who Moved Away

(*And the sitcoms I accidently cancelled everytime I moved away.)