"Old" Friends

This morning, I wrote the following as my status on Facebook:
"Trina is heading out to have a picnic with some very old friends!

I had a couple of comments asking if these friends were indeed "old", or if they are friends that I've known a long time.

I suppose the answer depends on how you define "old". We were all in the same grade in school, which makes us all around 40-ish. I don't think that's old, but that's just my opinion. ;)

On the other hand, this group of friends are people that I've known since 6th grade or Junior High. That means that we've known each other for nearly 30 years! We all grew up together in lovely Milpitas, CA.

My wonderful friend, Kimi, was the only person I stayed in touch with after high school. We first met at Band Camp in 8th grade. Our friendship has survived and thrived through band camp, AP classes, college, visits to Ohio, Kimi living in Italy, marriages, children and day-to-day life. I cherish our friendship deeply, and am so grateful to have her and her family in my life.

I've known our friend, Lee, since the 6th grade. We reconnected through the magic of Facebook, just this past March. We both live in San Francisco, and have enjoyed getting together a few times since then.

Our friend, Tim, moved to Milpitas in 7th grade. Lee has stayed in touch with Tim since high school, and Kimi and I reconnected with him in May of this year.

In one of the most bizarre examples of extreme coincidences, Lee and I realized that all three of us, Lee, Tim, and I, all lived on the same block on San Francisco at the same time! We only overlapped for a little bit, but I never knew that either of them were there!

I met Amy at a mutual friend's slumber party way back in 6th grade, but we didn't attend the same elementary school. We went to the same Junior High and High School, and the four of us had many, many classes together. Today was the first time I saw Amy since we graduated in 1987! (Lee and Tim had both stayed in touch with Amy over the years.)

Lee helped to organize a picnic which we had today in lovely (but chilly!) Bernal Heights. What a wonderful afternoon it was! Kimi, Tim and Amy all brought their families, and we all had such a nice time together.

Somehow, we managed to be together for over 4 hours without actually taking a group photo. That's too bad.

I did manage to squeeze in a couple of candids:


Amy, Tim, John (Amy's husband), Manuel (Kimi's husband), Lee and Kimi, all watching...


...the kid's playing croquet!

I also got one posed shot of Kimi and Lee together! They hadn't seen each other in nearly 20 years!


Kimi and Lee - 08/02/09

...and just for fun, I borrowed a photo that Kimi had posted on her blog a while back (along with some really terrific old photos of the two of us together!). Here's a shot of me, Lee and Kimi goofing off at our Winter Ball in1986! With the exception of our hair styles, and possibly my fashion sense, I'd say we haven't changed much in 23 years!

Trina, Lee and Kimi - December 1986

It is so nice to reconnect with all of these friends from our past. It's such a joy to see everyone, meet their children, and to get to know the people that we've all become. I hope we're able to do it all again soon!