When you are friends with someone for a long time, eventually you and your friend will experience what all friends do - a misunderstanding or miscommunication. Every two friends experience this at some point and it almost always gets resolved and forgotten about and the friendship goes on as if nothing happened. I recently experienced this - and it almost cost me a great friend.

I have about a grillion friends that I try to spend time with as often as I can. Sometimes, I wind up having to sacrifice spending time with one friend to spend time with another. While this behavior is unavoidable at times, it can be very costly to a friendship. That is what almost happened with me and my friend Doug.

Recently, I have been spending a lot of time at Woody's apartment, which is directly across the hall from Doug's. I would get so wrapped up at Woody's that I would forget to knock on Doug's door and say hello - while forgetting to say hi to Doug once is not a big deal - it is when it happens over and over again for about a month that it becomes a problem. If that's not bad enough, while making plans with everyone of my other friends, I neglected to add Doug to that list. All I can say in my own defense - is that I have none.

This behavior continued until I received an e-mail from Doug. I assumed it was an e-mail just to say hi. Instead, it was a very touching letter telling me how upset he was that we were not hanging out as much. That e-mail made me stop and realize that I was not being a very good friend.

Even though I have patched everything up with Doug, I learned something from this experience. I learned that no matter how busy you are, no matter how hectic your life gets, and no matter if you are spending time miles away from your friend - or right across the hall - try not to neglect one friend for another - because in the end - you'll lose.

And Doug, you are a great friend to me. The last thing I would ever want is to lose you as a friend. I am truly sorry.