In November, my good friend, Georgia, left Pittsburgh and moved back home to Minneapolis.

I've missed her something awful.

We met last March and became fast friends. We soon instituted a Tuesday tradition of sorts - walking in the cemetery near her apartment in Regent Square after work. It became one of the best parts of my week, walking through the narrow paths, talking about work, our lives and wondering about the different things we saw as we made our way from the Jewish section to the Korean section to the hilltop where Sen. John Heinz is entombed. Why, for example, did all the headstones in the Jewish section have stones and rocks on top of them?

I must also mention that Georgia is one of the coolest people I've ever met. A singer and musician, she also sings backup vocals for the Detroit punk group Nikki & the Corvettes and in July went on tour with the band in Japan. She introduced me to Soulcialism, a once-a-month soul music tribute on the Southside. She is also the only girl I've ever met who likes hotdogs as much as I do.

So when she left, I felt this gaping loss. We talked on the phone and tried to set up weekend get-togethers but something always fell through. I started to lose confidence. Maybe we weren't as good a friends as I thought. Maybe, just maybe, she didn't care as much about preserving "us" as I did. I mean, seriously, I was the geek here. What did I bring to the table except strategies for renewing the library's online renewal system?

Inspiration came in talking to my sister Linda on the phone a few weeks back. She told me that I could come visit her in Salt Lake City anytime I wanted.

"All you have to do is ask," she told me, adding that it had been three years since my last visit. "And if it's not a good weekend for me, we'll just make it another weekend."

It blew my mind. I had been waiting for her to invite me, reasoning that she would ask when she was ready. After all, I didn't want to impose. I had felt the same of Georgia. If she wanted me to come, she'd ask. Or maybe...

"So, I have a long weekend and I was wondering if I could come visit," I said on the phone with Georgia, about two weeks back.

She said more than yes. She screamed a little in the way she does, then said that would be awesome. In the days before I left, she would call telling me about things she had planned for us to do. Tonight, for example, we are going to the roller derby.

Next, I think I'll ask my sister.