every time i see you fall . . .

today i went to the airport and had my reunion (with two other very close friends) love-actually style, with the kilipino. she has been away since february, and so much has happened--and stayed the same--since then.
i was overwhelmed, like completely overwhelmed, when the tv lit up at the baggage claim and i knew for sure the flight was coming in. i started to cry before i even saw her. the tears started flooding when i turned around and she was running down the hallway towards us. it felt so good to hug her, to actually have proof of her after very hurried phone calls or hastily typed gmail chats.
the kilipino and i have known each other through a lot. we have been friends now for eleven years... since when our parents had to give us a ride somewhere. then through drivers licenses, proms, college, first jobs, life crises. she has always been there for me when i have fallen. she sings me songs on the phone. she cries if i cry. and if something goes well, she is right there, jumping and screaming and dancing with me. she is funny as hell. i swear that sometimes she has ESP. she knows the right thing to say or do, she picks up on little cues. her kind of friendship is so rare, something i am learning the older i get. i was talking to her mother tonight, and she was saying to me how important it is to have friends with history, people who will be with you through everything, grow old with you.
i have a kilipino-shaped hole in my life while she lives in paraguay, yet i was so for this, so want her to do this and succeed, wholeheartedly. i love how happy she is. it's weird to think that on my wedding day, she will be an eleven-hour plane ride (or more—to hawaii it'd be like 20 hours)—a hemisphere away. but i know i will still feel her.
i'm so lucky to have a few friends who fall into this category, who know me inside and out, who know my imperfections and downfalls, my weaknesses, and still love me. and consider me a friend to them. we have supported each other through ups and downs, be it outside forces or between ourselves, for a long time. today in the airport, i could feel it physically, a pull, my steps quickening, a squeeze, my tears, her tears, my friends' tears. it was like suddenly, seeing her, my heart ached that much more for how much i have been missing her, now having her close to me.
the emotions are so close to the surface today. just bubbling right underneath my skin, cells pulsating. tears at the ready. overjoyed. overwhelmed.
my cup runneth over.