A Magical Moment via Skype.

I know it's not a normal thing for a group of best friends from high school to sustain an actual, intact, lasting bond, but that's just what we did. As awesome as it is there are times that I wonder if this is weird, this idea of seven girls who had a cheesy nickname for their group in high school (the Six Pack... yeah), flying across the country to celebrate each other's milestones, talking constantly, still emotionally investing themselves in each other's lives and relationships. But, there we are, doing all that and more. Still. Almost a decade (!) or more later.

When Jason and I got married, I gave all of my bridesmaids this "wish" necklace. It's a simple thread, with a dove charm, meant to "fall" off, theoretically, when your wish comes true. I had one like it years ago and it broke in a matter of weeks.

Um, not this time. Crystal has developed a rash on her neck from this necklace. She itches at it incessantly and is growing embarrassed of the red splotches around her neck. She still has the necklace on. A few days ago, she came over to play with Addy, and Addy--being the jewelry-lover that she is--kept grabbing at it and pulling. For the first time when it concerned a piece of jewelry, we encouraged her, told her to "go, Addy! Pull!" It didn't budge.

Another one of my best friends, Elise, is 39 weeks pregnant with her first baby. She and I will be the only members of our group that are mothers. (Erin, Crystal and I just bought our tickets this morning to go meet her baby in November. I can't wait.) Her necklace has gotten so annoying, she told me yesterday, that she will probably request a pair of scissors immediately after she pushes little Dominic out. Before she holds him, before she takes a swig of water, she will ask for someone to rip the invincible string from her neck. (Her wish has something to do with Dominic and his healthy arrival, you see, so she won't jinx it before then. No matter how itchy that thing is.)

My best friend, Meagan, is going to graduate school in Australia right now. She and I spend a lot of time Skypeing, since we can't even talk on the phone. On Wednesday, we video-chatted for two hours. Toward the end of the conversation I was telling her about Crystal's rash and Elise's desperate desire to chop it off. Meagan was fiddling with the charm on her own wish necklace, talking about how insane it is that a piece of string could last for over six months, especially one that is constantly fiddled with, pulled, and not-so-secretly plotted against.

And in the middle of the conversation, right when Meagan was saying "maybe it will never fall off," the necklace suddenly fell into her lap. I watched it happen. We both sat there for a solid minute, barely able to speak, so taken aback by the weirdness and coincidence of the whole thing.

It was honestly a magical moment. Shared between two people, best friends for 15 years, separated by almost 10,000 miles.

(Let's hope her wish comes true.)