Just Rambling

Karis and Harper are trying to wring every possible bit of fun out of the last few hours of their weekend. It's been so fun to watch them reconnect! Saturday night I was tucking them into their sleeping bags on Karis' floor and when I leaned in to kiss Karis goodnight she wrapped her arms around my neck, smiled sweetly and said, "This has been my best day, hasn't it?" I said, "Yes honey, I guess it has." Last night after we put them in their sleeping bags, Harper came back downstairs with tears in her eyes. She was said because she realized that the next day, she was leaving. We soothed her and her Daddy held her on his lap for a while, then the two Daddies started putting their heads together about a way that the girls could see each other again before Harper goes back to Vegas. I think it's going to work out. And then she'll be back East in December to see her Daddy again so maybe we can have another visit.

Childhood friends are so important, I think. I'm sad that I'm not in touch with anyone I played with as a child or even any of my high school friends. My best friend growing up was Vicki, who was an only child just like me who lived in my neighborhood. Our houses were on streets that ran parallel to each other and they backed up to a grassy "alley" that was like a common area. Our Dads would take turns mowing the alley so Vicki and I could walk to each other's homes without fear of bugs or snakes. Vicki and I met when I was 7 and she was 6, and one of the first things she told me was that she's adopted. Our parents were friends off and on throughout our childhood and our Dads were in a gospel singing group together for years so we traveled to different churches and with no siblings around, we were each other's entertainment. Her parents were much more indulgent with her than mine were with me and she actually had a car, so we drove all over town. There was also Robin, who lived down the street from me and was also an only child (there seems to be a theme here). Of course it was impossible for the three of us to all be friends at once - it never works with odd numbers of girls, you know - so one or the other of us was always feeling left out. Then there was my step-cousin Dede who lived with her grandmother (my step-grandmother) right next to our house. Would you believe she was also an only child? We played together a lot and treated each other like siblings - took each other for granted, mostly. We shared a love for reading, board games and certain television shows. I used to spend the night with my friends several times a week during the summers. We'd go to the public swimming pool and stay for hours, or to the skating rink where we'd mainly flirt with the boys instead of skating.

By the time I was in high school, the four of us had drifted off into different groups of friends and I had a new best friend, Alice, who was from South Carolina. I think Alice deserves a post of her very own, so I'll write about her later. You know how there are different "groups" in high school - jocks/cheerleaders, smart kids, band geeks, potheads, etc. I actually straddled the line between two groups: the smart kids (yeah, hard to believe) and the drama club. There were several of us who wandered between the two. Were we Smart Kids who liked to sing and act? Or were we Singers/Actors who were also smart (or at least had the reputation of being smart)? For me it was the latter. I certainly wasn't a jock and I was never popular. I was actually quite shy in high school and while I wanted to be noticed, I didn't want to be noticed in a "bad" way so I kept my head down. I sang in the choir, acted in plays, did just enough homework to get by, and raised my hand in class to answer questions. Teachers loved me! My fellow students, not so much. I ran into my high school French teacher last year at Thanksgiving and she still remembered me! Go figure.