I'm stalking a girl named Audrey.

OK. So I'm not really stalking her, but I've unknowingly been following her around for the past two summers. Last year she was finishing up her undergrad work in Berkeley, and I just happened to choose the Cali bay area office to work. This summer Audrey is doing her grad studies at Rutgers in Jersey; and, for some unplanned reason, I'm here too.

Last night Audrey and I realized that by this September we will have been friends for 10 years.

It makes me happy to think that friendships can endure so much time. (Ten years is almost half my life.) As we discussed current musical endeavors and foreign travel obsessions it occurred to me that neither of us is the person we were in back 9th grade. Somehow though we've both changed in an interestingly congruous fashion.

For example both of us have decided that Dave Matthews Band went downhill since our high-school days and that now eclecticism seems to be our favorite factor in determining what to listen to. (We became friends through DMB.)

Both of us have also decided that the only way to live is to travel. (She brought me a gourd-shaker from her recent trip to Jamaica. How sweet.)

Most coincidentally, we both are infatuated with all things Spanish. (She's dating a Spaniard; I hang out with Dominicans for a living.)

So anyway. I'm not quite sure what the next 10 years will bring, or even where I'll be next summer. One things for sure though, and that's that wherever Audrey goes in 2006, chances are I'll be quick to follow.