’cause I’ve got friends in all the right places

I know what they want

and I know they don’t want me to stay

I’ve got friends in all the right places

I know what they want

and I know they don’t want me to stay

and you and I will find

that when I need you

I need it quickly
― Manchester Orchestra: I’ve Got Friends

As a person who moves around a lot, you get prepared to leave your friends behind. As someone who lives far from their family, you become used to missing out on holidays. As a traveler, one gets accustomed to waking up alone in strange hotel rooms. As a lover of someone in the military, I am learning that there will be times spent great distances apart.

But I am fortunate that I am never truly alone; I have 2am people.

If you are unfamiliar with the term, here’s a perfect little definition from the always enlightening Danielle LaPorte. “We decided that being able to call someone at 2am was our new metric of love…From celebration to devastation, who can you call at 2AM?”

Isn’t that delicious?

These are the people that you can call upon at every and any absurd moment of the day, for every and any discussion, and every and any opinion. They truly do get the best and worst, they get the prettiest first and the ugliest when desperate. They receive the drunken texts and the unnecessary apologies over coffee and mortified giggles the next morning. They judge in all the right ways.

They will sit on the bathroom floor of a bar and talk you off a ledge from 1500 miles away. They know when to post on Facebook that the UFO or unicorn reminded them of you, and text that you are loved, and randomly send an inane light-up gnome in the mail that makes you tear up from glee.  They travel to see you, and welcome you into their homes and onto their blue couches. They donate to your charity causes, and give you pretty socks as parting gifts. They let you drink their coffee and often too much wine. They surprise you.

These are the people that miss out on all the mundane in our lives, yet somehow pick up on all the minutiae in mere moments. They are somehow immune to timezones, oblivious to caller ID, and appropriately disrespectful of their present company when you reach out to them. They are the 2am people.

I am fortunate that my 2am people circle the globe. I am fortunate that my 2am people think of me in the same way I do of them. I get crazy text messages in the middle of the night, I know when to send irrelevant cards, and I am always willing to sacrifice sleep, sobriety and time for the opportunity to see and be with this invaluable group of people.

As I pack up from one hotel to head to another, I prepare to spend another weekend away from home. I am also preparing to see some amazing 2am-ers. In fact, I have seen almost all of mine this past month. From the Philippines to New York, from Los Angeles up to San Francisco, and yes, even in my own little corner of the world, my 2am people are shining. You are the people that make Jason’s absence manageable, and my sanity possible…

As Danielle says, these are, “the treasured, indispensable, no matter what, sacred circle”. I love my glittery, crazy, drunken, sacred little circle. Thank you my circle of unicorns. Thank you.