Ahoy, hoy?

The people who live in the house behind me are having some kind of amiably drunken fight in French; my windows are open so I can hear them very clearly. It rises and falls and sometimes I hear glass clinking so I think they're drinking from glasses, not bottles. Or maybe I'm just projecting wine glasses on them because of the French, I don't know. It's oddly soothing, and it reminds me of when I used to listen to Louise playing the same four chords from Green Day's "Good Riddance" over and over again in her room, across the hall though the closed door. Eventually it shifted from annoying to steadying to vaguely pleasant. Little variations, slight differences in timing and hesitation, and it sounded like something she was saying over and over again just to me.

I was just thinking-- I called a friend, and she didn't pick up, so I left a voicemail which started with, "Hey, it's me." And then I thought about how many people I have that I can do that with, because everyone needs at least one "It's me," person. I call her often enough that I qualify, but there are definitely other friends that I'm pretty sure I don't rate that with.

So, I guess if I exclude my parents and three brothers from the list (they count, though my siblings and I are just as likely to start the conversation with something like, "Hey Dog Face," which is a related variation on the "Hey, it's me,") than I have... I dunno, three "Hey, it's me"'s? Four, maybe, if I push it. I had to think about it, and then look at my phone's contact list.

How many do you have?