A couple of nights ago we watched (well, attempted to watch) Walk the Line with Joaquin Phoenix & Reese Witherspoon. A favorite of mine and need I repeat ... Joaquin Phoenix!

It was near perfect ... the kids were in bed, we had just settled in for the second half of the movie when the power went out. No apparent reason ... just gone, complete blackness and the screams of our not quite to sleep yet kids bellowing down the hall.

As husband tries to find the flashlight, I attempt to find my cell phone, yellow pages and light a candle all while telling the kids to calm down ... well okay ~ yelling from the kitchen. Proof once again, women are better at multi-tasking.

20 minutes later the power company has been called, the kids are back in bed and husband has declared he can't use the bathroom until the power is on because "it's pitch black in there!"

Call it a moment of inspiration based on the nights movie choice or just a desperate plea not to have to clean pee off the floor; I decided to come to husbands rescue.

Armed with a handful of tea lights and my trusty lighter I headed to the bathroom. Yup ... you guessed it ... the ring of fire was born! I exited the bathroom with a big grin and mentioned "I lit some candles for you." Moments later one could hear the subtle hum of Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash.

During a recent walk with our family dog I was fortunate enough to get reacquainted with an old friend. She and her 3yr old daughter came running out of the house to greet us. It was great to see her, meet her daughter for the first time and be reminded about what a great friendship we had growing up. Her and I used to spend afternoons together, had many sleepovers and kept each other company while our Mother's had their various woman's parties.

It got me to thinking, what happened? How did our lives separate so that we never kept in touch? Is it possible to reconnect after so much time has passed? Over the past 20 years we each got married, moved away, began our families and somehow lost sight of our friendship along the way. Funny thing is we both ended up nearly next to each other, only 3 houses separate our houses, at nearly the same stage in our life.

While I remember being fast friends with her I can not remember any of the details. I don't remember her favorite color, hobby, food, what she wanted to be when we grew up etc. I don't even remember when her birthday is or her actual age other than knowing she is younger. It's as if I am meeting an old friend and a complete stranger all at once when I see her.

So I am now faced with a large amount of guilt, for not keeping in touch, sprinkled with a healthy dose of curiosity. I feel compelled to reach out and make an attempt towards renewing our friendship but struggle with 'how.'

I can keep walking past their house in attempts to see if she'll come out again, hoping she doesn't think I am stalking her, or I can just stop by some day with a basket of something (wouldn't it be nice to remember some of her likes and dislikes here!) but don't want to seem to pushy ... again stalking comes to mind.

So here I sit at the crossroad of indecision.