Anus-Hole Friend

Our core group of friends, we they are turning 30. That's right. One of those victims friends has a birthday coming up in about two weeeks and was clear of where she wanted to go. I, of course, being the fantastical friend that I am declined initially. INTIALLY!!! She has a thing with tardiness. It used to be one of my biggest peeves as well, but after the Jellybean, I became one of those annoying people who you can't get in touch with right away, have to wait on for hours to get a response to a text or IM, and days to respond to some emails. Why? BECAUSE THERE'S TOO MUCH NOISE IN THE HOUSE FOR ME TO THINK STRAIGHT! Whew. Anyway, I declined because I didn't want to be the sap that walks in 30 minutes after a party of 20 is already set to eat dinner. Well, that was my thinking. Then of course I get a follow-up: "Why can't you come? It's my 30th and I want all my friends to be there. PAUSE. STAB VAL IN THE HEART. PAUSE." Talk about feeling like an anus-hole, right? I realized after talking to her, I don't see any of my closest friends much. I see a lot of my mommy friends and yes, they're very close friends, but I forget sometimes how much I miss the friends I grew up with because I'm too busy being the new mommy me. This friend who gets to age first, I fell off bicycles with speeding down the hill of our old neighborhood (She did, not I. In fact, she scraped up the entire one side of her face actually and it was green for a good part of the school year from aloe treatment - good stuff!), face planted off swings with (again, not I, but she did), got our bicycles stolen by a homeless man (hers, not mine - come to think of it, she had some crappy days as a kid!) ate fruit roll-ups wrapped around pretzels with, grew apart from during college, dating, and living abroad years, and kinda grew back together as big peoples (until she deserted me and moved to the big, dirty, crowded, rat infested city that she finds awesomeness in, but that's neither here nor there). Did I mention she was my maid of honor when I got hitched a few thousand days ago? My point is, I will be going to dinner because sometimes, being a mom doesn't mean you get to make excuses for distancing good friends. Dammit! I said I would be there!