Making Friends - The Jolly Trolley

Imagine an old "Rice-a-Roni" Trolley with gold handlebars and handcrafted slate wood seats blaring television theme songs from your childhood on an overhead video screen. Imagine this trolley being driven by a jolly hippie named Scoobie drinking Red Bull and passing out candy to passengers like some sweet little old lady. Now imagine this trolley roaring from bar to bar in downtown Tulsa on a loop sent from heaven that, at the end of the night, will deliver you safely to your own front door. This is the T-Town Trolley. And it's free.

Last night we had an unexpectedly good time. I say unexpectedly because everything about this Jolly Trolley was totally unexpected. We rolled around to our favorite places, laughed and chatted with other folks on the trolley, and got to site-see some really cool spots in Tulsa we have yet to visit. What was really unexpected, however, was the feeling that came over me at a hot dog vender at the corner Boston. 

Our friends would really have loved this.

For many 20-somethings, moving is an unavoidable part of finding where you belong. Sometimes, like for my husband and I, the place where you think you belong is where you simply cannot be. For us, that place is Chattanooga, Tennessee, the city we spent the best years of our 20s, where we went to college, where we made friends that turned out to be family, and where we met each other. I know a lot of people say their friends are like "family," but our friends in Chattanooga really are our family. Most people are lucky to have those one or two friends that they can count on in any situation. Do or Die. I can name like 10. Probably more. This is mostly because of my husband's fraternity, Lambda Chi Alpha, probably the most influential entity in our early 20s. The fraternity dictated Aaron's schedule, and therefore a lot of mine. It dictated the type of individuals Aaron stayed close to, a very solid, loyal group of guys. It even ended up dictating who I became friends with. My two best friends, Cakes and Cash & Prizes, were both dating brothers when we met many years ago. We were brought together by the "stresses" of college and fraternity life. We went through some truly horrific times together. And I can honestly say, these two women are more like sisters than best friends to me. 

So how do you walk onto a trolley and say to someone, "Hey, let's go through something really meaningful together so that we can be the best of friends."  Um, you don't. Making friends in a new town is incredibly uncomfortable, but I think it's even more uncomfortable when you are used to being around a very large, very tight-knit group of people. Seeing so many happy groups of people on the Jolly Trolley made me really miss our friends. 

My husband and I will soon be conducting interviews for good, solid friends. If you know of anyone who fits the description below, please have them submit their application by next Friday...

WANTED - Loyal, intelligent individuals with quirky and sometimes over-the-top senses of humor in their mid-late 20-somethings. Must love SEC football, smut television, good whiskey and/or great wine, dogs, children, America, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Please submit your qualifications, video sample, mix tape, and blood/hair/semen sample to futurefriends at gmail dot com. If you don't know how to fit a blood/hair/semen sample into an email, then you aren't qualified to be our friend.