Phone calls from 4 hours away will be talks over coffee on southside soon.

I just sat back in my bed. Comfortable in my flannel pajama pants and t-shirt, leaning against the cool, white concrete wall on my top bunk. A cold can of Pabst Blue Ribbon in my left hand, a warm melted cheese sandwich on a plate sitting on my lap, and my portable phone pressed against my right ear. I sat there just smiling at how perfect everything was at that moment. Thinking about all the things we are going to do together when she comes back to Pittsburgh.

She hasn’t failed me on a Saturday nights for the past three weeks. I think that it has become an unspoken ritual that we have together. She calls me every Saturday night, and I am there waiting for her call every Saturday night. I was just laying in bed, half asleep from feeling lonely and being a little drunk, when the phone rang. As soon as it rang, I knew it was her. All it took was that one ring and I suddenly got excited like a little boy might get excited when he gets a Birthday card in the mail. He knows that as soon as he opens the envelope there is going to be a nice crisp $20 bill from Grandma and Grandpa. I knew as soon as I picked up the phone I was going to hear the most sweet and comforting voice in the world.

Her 20th Birthday is coming up soon, so for her Birthday her Mom gave her $100. Her Grandma gave her $50. She found $20 on the ground as she was walking around her town. She has a check waiting for her where she works. With all the money she has been given, found, and earned she told me the process of her moving to back home to Pittsburgh is coming sooner and sooner. Closer and closer. The first Saturday night we talked she told me she was going to move back in hopefully six months, the next Saturday night she told me hopefully by the end of the year, last night she told me she might be back as soon as October 4th, that’s only 3 weeks away.

October 4th is the night of the Karate show at the Andy Warhol Museum. Imagine that. I get to see Karate, hang out at the Warhol with my friends, and have a reunion with Dana. I can’t think of anything more amazing than that.

I am sure next Saturday I will be sitting here all alone until the phone rings, and hopefully when she calls she will say she will be here even sooner than October 4th. I can’t wait until then, because I can’t wait to feel as complete as I did last year when she was in my life. I want that again.

{(Kind of Like Spitting - March 25, 1998)}

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