Visit from a Friend

I have to visit Japan!!

A dear friend of mine from my days at UC came to visit Cincinnati from Japan this week. She and I have now been friends for almost 9 years. Her husband works for P&G, home-based out of Kobe, Japan. She now works there too and is tops in her career!

In school, she was a year ahead of me, but we quickly crossed paths as I was double majoring and taking many core classes very quickly to get done on time. When we met we knew right away that we would be friends. She was the "Student of the Year" for her graduation year and a year later, I was the "Student of the Year" and Valedictorian for our college. We both interned at school in the networking department. And we both absolutely LOVED working in the networking department. I had entirely too much fun working there. Her project became mine to implement, maintain and enhance.

After she graduated, her husband's temporary US assignment was over and it was time to move back to Japan. That was very, very sad for all of us at UC because we loved being with her so much. But when she got to Japan, she was quickly hired by P&G and began her illustrious career! She just won a prestigious award for the great job she does!! Congrats!

She's visited Cincinnati a couple of years ago and fortunately, was with a group at P&G that I was doing business with, so we were in meetings for part of the week together! That was totally cool. This trip, we just made sure to have time to visit.

Went to PF Chang's in Norwood for a scrumptious dinner: ordered SICHUAN STYLE ASPARAGUS and STIR-FRIED SPICY EGGPLANT served with Brown Rice and a red wine that was highly recommended by our server (my boyfriend's son) and for dessert we shared BANANA SPRING ROLLS which were to die for!!

And even though the dinner was absolutely delicious, the time with my friend was the MORE IMPORTANT THAN ANYTHING!! We shared pictures - funny, I brought mine in a digital camera and she had hers on a camera phone - very techhy by accident of course! We chatted about our kid's, careers, coworkers, spouse/boyfriend, parents, health, and school. It was as if we see each other all of the time. Now that's a real measure of a friend, isn't it?

Thanks for visiting me, I look forward to coming to Japan to visit you!!