Bagelybagelybagely Bagel

Well, Roommate has left the Far North. And I miss her already. In case I haven’t said it clearly enough, Roommate is much more than a person with whom I used to share a dorm room/condo/apartment. She is my best friend. And my confidant. And practically my soul mate, but only in an intrinsically-and-eternally-connected-via-the-soul-in-a-completely-platonic-but-still-very-serious kind of way. We may have been born from two different wombs, but we’re absolutely sisters. Judging by the way that almost every single post on my blog so far has been about her, I’m sure that this level of devotion is apparent. But I’m not one for subtlety, so I thought I’d say it straight out.

While she was here, we did many Far North-y types of things, like fishing, shooting, hiking, glacier walking (and almost being eaten by a glacier, but that’s a story for a different day), wild animal viewing, and general scenery absorbing. I think we found a little bit of that magic I was looking for, but it wasn’t enough to get her to stay. I guess she likes her family or something...

Anyway, the funnest parts were the hanging out parts. And the crazy conversations we got into. Example? Sure.
Me: (with mouth full of fresh strawberries and fruit dip) Roommate! You should try this fruit dip. It’s delicious.
Roommate: (skeptical single eyebrow raise) What’s in it?
Me: Vanilla yogurt, cream cheese, and powdered sugar.
Roommate: (even more skeptical single eyebrow raise and added nose wrinkle) Umm... I don’t really like cream cheese on things. Well, on things that are not bagels.
Long pause with bemused look from me.
Me: That sounds like a game show category. (hokey voice) “I’ll take 'Things That Are Not Bagels' for $200, Alex.”
Roommate: (not missing a beat) “What is... a tree?” “That is correct. We would have also accepted a multitude of other answers...”
Me: I was going for something more closely connected, like “This round food is deep fried and commonly covered in sugar or icing.” “What is... a donut?” “That is correct, a donut is not a bagel.”
Roommate: (shrugging) A tree is not a bagel as much as a donut isn’t.
Sister: I was thinking more like Pyramid. “A tree. A donut. My left knee cap. Portugal.” “Things that are not bagels!”

For the rest of the trip (and I’m guessing long into the future), we used that phrase whenever possible and applicable. Or, well, whenever we wanted, really. On Sunday, we went to my parent’s house for dinner and ended up playing Taboo. (It a game. You know the one. Where you have a word you’re trying to get your team to say, but you can’t say it or five similar words on a card and if you do, the other team gets to stop you with a really loud, obnoxious buzzer? Yes? Alright.) I was slightly worried that Roommate would have a hard time, since she’d never played before and she didn’t know us all well enough to get our inside jokes as clues. And? Roommate rocked that game. Anyway, my point: The very last word to be drawn, half a second before the timer ran out on the very last round? Bagel. I cannot express how sad I was that we didn’t get to use the phrase. Also: I have been craving bagels for a week...

In any event, I’m back at work today. And Roommate is back at her work today. I think we can both agree that we need a vacation to recover from our vacation. We made a pact that we would visit each other at least once a year from now on, which made us both sad to think that it will be a whole year before we see each other. But if every reunion takes that much energy and money, I think it might be best. Nope. I don’t believe that. I typed it, reread it, and decided it’s a lie. The exhaustion is totally worth it. It was all worth it. To explain, I have compiled the following lists:

Things this vacation was:

• amazing
• time consuming
• Far North-y
• hilarious
• exhausting
• necessary
• ache-inducing
• fattening
• fun
• worth it

Things this vacation was not:

• boring
• at the beach
• icecreamless
• sedentary
• spent at work
• magical (enough to make Roommate stay)
• cheap
• long enough
• a bagel