Best Friends OR Opposites Attract OR Some other title I can't think of that's less cheesy

On Monday Angus was still firmly parked at the house where he'd slept over the night before. If you want to, you can savour the entertaining fact that a friend who moved six hours away a few months ago was also there, and that Angus came home with a dozen pictures on his ipod touch of... his friend Noah's new hamster. My husband said "you didn't take any pictures of Jon?" Angus said "I already know what Jon looks like." 

Eve was bored, it was sunny out and we were supposed to walk the neighbours' dog while they're in the Dominican. So I proposed that we walk over to her friend Marianna's house and pick her up for a few hours. We called and set it up, then went next door to get the dog. The dog wasn't there. There's a friend staying there who might have taken him to work. It's a mystery I'm chosing to leave undisturbed for now. I'm not sure why I mentioned it except that it was another good reason for a walk. If I was an editor I'd red-pencil it.

Anyway. We had a nice walk over. On the way, Eve said "when you think about it, it's funny that Marianna and I are friends. I can't climb a tree to save my life and she hates books." It's true that they don't have a lot in common except each other. Marianna is wiry and agile and never met a horizontal straight skinny thing that she didn't hang upside down from. Eve used to take twenty minutes to inch her way across the balance beam at gymnastics -- which was six inches above a cushioned floor mat. Marianna loves olives and squid. Eve doesn't even like sauce on her spaghetti. Marianna's own mother says that she lacks empathy -- if someone is sad she'll try to make them laugh, but she just doesn't get it. Eve is so empathetic she doesn't like watching golf balls get hit. Despite this, they've been inseparable since the third day of Junior Kindergarten, which, after two days of staggered entry, was the day they met.

I find it really funny how they're so aware of their differences. As soon as we got there, Marianna ran up to get her new toad to show Eve. She said "do you want me to put it in your hand or are you too scared to touch him?" without a trace of judgement. On the way home, we saw a long line of huge noisy vehicles -- the truck that chews up the snowbanks and a bunch of the dump trucks that it spits the snow into, one being filled and moving on, another empty one moving up to take its place. Eve said "I want to watch them, they're so cool!" and Marianna said "I don't really want to" and Eve said "yeah, I figured you were going to say that". As we walked on, Marianna said "It's the Big Slow-Moving Loud Truck Convention". Eve said "that name is a little awkward... but very descriptive!". Just as we were turning the corner for home, Marianna said "are we almost there? My legs are tired." and Eve said "I was just thinking it was weird that you hadn't started complaining yet. I know how much you hate walking." 

Their play dates are more of the same. One wants to play a board game, which of course is the last thing the other wants, then five minutes later they're playing the board game happily. They play with the hermit crab that Marianna gave Eve for her birthday, which she was too scared to touch for five weeks but now can pick up. They draw pictures (Eve's favourite thing) and play video games (Marianna's favourite thing). We bring Marianna home, which then turns into a post-play-date at Marianna's, and they both wail when it's time to leave. 

I don't know how long they'll be friends. I'm not in touch with anyone I went to kindergarten with. Marianna's crazy Greek family has totally embraced Eve, which I find overwhelmingly wonderful, since my kids don't even have the once yearly experience of being awash in relatives that I used to have with my mother's Polish clan in Saskatchewan. I find it doubly amazing since, like me, they must not really know what to do with this kid that is so different from theirs.

I'm at a point in my life where most of my close friends are a lot like me. I like the idea of being exposed to different ideas and perspectives and paradigms, but in practice, I'm middle-aged and fairly settled in how I see the world, and if I'm honest, someone who views child-raising or religion or or marriage very very differently from me and is a very vocal advocate of their position (there's always room for someone who's as wishy-washy as I am) is probably not going to become my BFF. I'm not trying to make this more profound than it is -- I just find watching my daughter with her friend kind of neat. (and I'm not at all bitter about having to clean out a hermit crab cage every second day).