The Birthday Reminder Service saved me from an embarrassing situation yet again! As I gloat over my smart thinking on that one, read up what happened when my cell phone died on me…

Some say that when you rely on something in particular, there’s every chance that it might fall to pieces! This week started off real bad. My cell phone conked out because I managed to drop it at an impossibly cruel angle. With that form of communication out of the table, I took to communicating with Sarah only through text messages. I informed everyone on my ecard dashboard to go online to contact me.

When I reached office on Tuesday, I had the administrative professional of my office giving me a list of messages that Sarah left at the desk. It was something urgent, for sure. I took the note and smiled a ‘Thank you’ to this silent warrior at work. The big guys take the credit, but it’s these professionals who make sure the square pegs goes to the square holes and not the round ones. Our administrative professional friend was most kind to me that day, as I found out later.

I called Sarah immediately after receiving the messages. Surely if she felt it that important to call me at work, I had to be prompt about it. Sarah immediately answered the call. She needed my help because she wanted to do something special for her professional guru. Sarah has a lot of respect for this person who will be completing twenty-five years in service. “Everything I know, I owe it to him,” Sarah said with some feeling, “Will you help me draft a short note for him?”

This was the first time I was talking to her since the Easter party at my place. That day will surely go down in my memoirs as one of those days when everything fell in place for me. As Sarah spoke about her mentor in some vivid detail so that I can customize the note, I thought of that Easter evening. Sarah was fashionably late but when she walked in, she did turn heads! I introduced her to my gang of friends, again! It was a room full of people I’d never want to lose touch with.

The online invitations that I sent for the party were a real success! Many told me that this is a better way to track RSVPs than phone calls. It worked for me!

As I lay on the couch thinking over the note I was to write for Sarah, Adrian walked in. He is growing stranger with the day. He was always been cheerful, living his life on metaphorical roller blades. Now, with the big marriage coming up soon, he’s digging into a bit of a pit. Megan told me it’s natural for someone like Adrian to feel this way, having stayed away from any major responsibility all his life. “This is just too big for him!” Megan advised me, “Let him cope with it.”

I have no reason to doubt Megan’s words, because she is in no way any less concerned about Adrian than I am. After all, we have been there for each other through thick and thin. But I was not too comfortable leaving Adrian alone in his pool of worries. “You’re not leaving him lonely,” Megan pointed out, “You’re just leaving him alone to sort things out. Being absent doesn’t always mean you’re not there for him.” I could see sense in it. I hope Adrian comes around soon.

Agreeing to Megan and taking a step back was the easier part. What was tough was not letting Adrian’s situation get to me. A smiling face is infectious, but so is a glum one. I was worried that this sudden spurt of oxygen in my equation with Sarah might turn out to be a flash in the pan. What if the happiness dried up just as easily as it showered? I don’t want to repeat the mistakes of the past. Now that I know how much joy this gives me, I want my bond with Sarah to remain strong.

I know that things are easier said than done. Making a relationship click is not as easy as reading up on how to make them work. On a personal level, you have to make your rules and stick to them because every relation is unique in itself. I’m planning to be more communicative and open in my equation with Sarah. I think that talking things over might make more sense than holding up the hurt when the going is not easy. I hope I’m not taking the wrong road again.

Here’s a quote by Sam Keen to encourage people in love but are a little down: “We come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly”