Despite all of my talk about all the great things to do in New York, I have to admit, I really like having quiet nights at home. Tonight was one of them. It’s been a busy week, and I have a busy weekend ahead of me, so it was nice to get home, have an unhealthy but delicious dinner, and talk on the phone.

I used to say I wasn’t a phone person – I even got anxious sometimes when I had to call someone – but my first job cured me of that. I still don’t talk to most of my friends on the phone all that often, but tonight, after a nice chat with my dad, I had a long catch-up with one of my best friends – who is also my oldest friend. We grew up across the street from each other, so technically we’ve been friends for just over twenty-five years.

I called her because we’ve been texting about a trip to see me she’s planning to make over the summer with a few others, but we had a nice long rambling conversation about everything from my ear infection to our jobs to books we’ve been reading. This was great, because we hadn’t talked about any of this stuff in our recent texts.

Why? Because most of our texts are about two things: Castle and Once Upon a Time.

Being obsessed with TV shows is a fairly recent thing for me. My family didn’t have cable till after I left for college. I discovered binge watching when I got a Gilmore Girls season 4 DVD my senior year of high school, and I did watch TV some in college, but I spent the little leisure time I had on movies and pleasure reading. My roommate and I did get into watching Pushing Daisies, though, and I started watching Castle with friends in the very first season. I used to guess whether they’d caught the real killer by how many minutes we were into an episode.

My TV viewing has gone up since graduating, partly due to Netflix and streaming episodes, and partly due to having more free time. But I’ve only gotten into the ritual of sitting down to watch shows I like as they air recently, and mostly in the last few months, after I finally got a TV that gets local channels.  It’s a nice, relaxing routine for me, and since my Castle- and Once Upon a Time-loving friend also often watches these shows when they air, Sunday and Monday nights have become an opportunity for us to connect over the trials and tribulations of our favorite characters. It’s become one of my favorite things to do each week, because our text exchanges make watching the shows more fun and keep us in touch on a regular basis.

Look, nothing beats hanging out with friends in person – I love going to shows or museums or dinner or the park, all those New York things I keep doing and writing about. But long-distance friendships require nourishing, too. Sometimes you just need a Thursday night at home in your pajamas, when you can eat a Hostess cupcake while your friend laughs on the other end of the line, and you don’t hang up but procrastinate writing your weekly blog post, because talking is just so much more fun.