In middle school youth group Megan screamed. Megan ran around the Family Activity Center and screamed as high pitched as a charging velociraptor. I never understood why. I figured that she must be either crazy, really excited, or was being chased by something unseen. This was my first actual memory of my dear friend Megan.
Fast forward about 3 or so years and Megan and I became friends. Alas, she had put her screaming days behind her and clothed herself in a more mature outfit. I think it was after an old boyfriend of mine dumped me, she and I formed a very important club: TAGWOBALI. (Two Awesome Girls With-Out Boys and Loving It). Save your "that's retarded" remarks for later....there is more to come. Megan was (and still is, of course) a rock of level-headed thinking. While, in high school, I was all about having a boyfriend or trying to think of ways to viciously MAKE a guy like me...Megan always stood firm. "You don't need a guy Lindsey," she'd say. "Boys are stupid." And as it turned out, I really didn't need a guy and, yes, all high school boys are treading water in different levels of "stupid". I was all about TAGWOBALI....until I re-dated the dumper...who ended up dumping me again. Ugh, whatever. The 2-woman club was so much better.
As I said, Megan was (and still is not) afraid to let her true feelings show. If she thought I said, did, or was thinking something stupid, she'd call me on it. To coin the exact phrase..."Stop doing X you dufus!" When I looked at her wide-eyed and unknowing, she would explain the mishap to me with exasperation under her breath. Then she'd laugh and we'd be friends again. I knew she loved me, so there was nothing more to do with her info but to take it and work on it! I love that she was (is!) not afraid to sugar coat stuff. If she sees it, she says it...and, yep, then you know.
I think that senior year we really became close. Throughout high school we were in a Bible Study with a mentor and we had a lot of fun doing that. I learned a lot from Megan because she knew vastly more than I did. I always felt a little awkward piping up when Megan had just recited the book of John from memory. But she was a great example to me of what a solid Christian teen can look like. I looked up to Megan a lot!
Some of my favorite memories of her is when we were hanging out in a group or together and things were relatively calm. She would randomly bust out laughing or start being crazy like she had just unleashed something bouncy inside of her. I would, of course, be on the floor in tears because seeing Megan act super silly is reserved for the super special. Like me.
I used to go and watch her on the swim team and she'd tell me tales about her doing synchronized swimming...but I didn't really understand what it was. It just sounded weird. I remember going to the mall and trying on one-piece Speedo swimsuits for summer....oh my gosh, I was soooo fashionable it physically hurts. And the only boy in her life for the longest time was that kid who went to Sahuaro High who was super cute and tall...and I can't remember his name. But I remember listening to Megan feed me snippets of her crush to me, despite my endless questioning.
Megan is the queen of remembering your special days. When I moved to Hawaii and was turning 21 all by my lonesome, she sent me cards. Lots of cards! She also had her friends from the dorm send me cards...lots of cards! It was very touching! She is so good about sending birthday and anniversary cards through the mail with little hand-written notes. Who does that anymore? Megan does, and it is one of the coolest things about her.
When I first found out I was pregnant, Megan hand delivered a Pregnancy book to me. She was the first one to see Alayna after she was born. She came and visited me in Hawaii with a few of our friends. I got to be a knocked up bridesmaid at her wedding.
Megan is one of my most trusted, loyal, genuine friends. Despite stupid Wyoming stealing her...I know that if I ever needed her, she'd be right there for me. That is what is so awesome about Megan!
Next...Laura...oh! and maybe some scanned pictures from the past! It shall be nostalgic and awkward all at once. (Just like my blog!)
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Monday, May 9, 2011
Part II: Nicole aka Nolie aka Bad
Alright. So, most of elementary school, all of jr high, and all of high school, Nicole and I were really close friends. Some times we were just friends, but sometimes we were the inseparable "bads". I do believe that whole "bad" thing started in high school when we would scold each other for something by just pointing and yelling, "bad!" This led to other people giving us weird looks, then accepting the weirdness, and going along with it by finally nicknaming us "the bads". Pretty sure that is how it all morphed into calling each other "bad". Wow. It's even weirder when you write it out.
So anyway, Nicole and I had loads of drama-filled fun in elementary school as well as high school. She was always the 'hot one' in our little pair. (I know. I am only now figuring out why she liked to hang out with me....to look hotter. Thanks a lot!) I was always reduced to being the 'funny one'. For you Friend buffs, just picture Joey and Chandler, except I'm not as funny....or hairy. I mean, some guys like fat 12 year olds that can weave hilarious one liners into the conversation okay? She, from the time we started hanging out with each other in 3rd grade, had always been more interested in guys than me. I mean, I like guys...don't get me wrong, but she was actively solving man-equations in her head that would ultimately lead to snagging their attention. Example:
In 3rd or 4th grade she had a massive crush on this kid named Daniel. Oh Daniel...you blonde haired, blue-eyed sweetums. Nicole and our little posse actually had a meeting to devise a plan to get his attention. I didn't have much to contribute, but I did know that Daniel always checked out the big dodgeball at lunch time. Bingo! No one ever fought him for his right to get the ball, but Nicole did. Attention-grabbing tactic number 1: She raised her hand so fast and enthusiastically that the teacher had no other choice but to hand over the ball. It was awesome. Next, we spent the majority of our lunch break trying to get that very same, coveted dodgeball, stuck into one of the large mesquite trees on the play ground. Why, you ask? Well, once the ball was securely stuck at the tippy toppy of the tree, Nicole ran over to Daniel (who was begrudgingly playing soccer) and asked him to please help us...err...her get the ball down from the tree. Genius. Seriously, what 4th grader comes up with something that awesome? I still remember Nicole and Daniel walking back to the school together after he had successfully retrieved the ball from the tree.
Besides all that, we have a lot of "boy" memories together. We both dated different 'Aarons' at the same time. At one point she liked a guy named Bob, and I don't remember much about that except that his name seemed so weird for a 16 year old. I guess it isn't weird now that he is probably 32 or something. I don't know...I think that is the only thing I remember about that. Boys would ask me about her a lot and, thinking back, I should have just handed out little business cards so I didn't have to keep repeating myself. "Yes she is single. She likes romantic comedies. Yes, she dances. I don't know if she'd date you...you ask her. Please leave her brunette, lonely friend alone."
We tied for 3rd place in our elementary school's science fair (boo yah!). She used to MAKE us learn dance steps behind the ramada at school and would not accept, "please let me be the audience" as an answer. It was actually pretty fun...but don't act too silly because Madam Nolie will not have the silliness! She was (and probably still is) a performer. An avid dancer in her younger days, she loved doing the hair, makeup, dancing, acting...thing. She was the first one to ever curl my hair in, like, 6th grade and did it all on her own. She did Brooke's hair too. There are pictures somewhere to prove it. I swore to myself that she'd be a makeup artist for celebrities some day. We went to the Monster Mash every year and she always had the coolest Halloween costumes. Anyway, lots more memories than just that, of course. I just remember the whole friendship as very fun...and dramatic. Ha! Loved it!
Note to self: I blame Flagstaff for all the relationships that have been compromised in my life. Beware.
So anyway, Nicole and I had loads of drama-filled fun in elementary school as well as high school. She was always the 'hot one' in our little pair. (I know. I am only now figuring out why she liked to hang out with me....to look hotter. Thanks a lot!) I was always reduced to being the 'funny one'. For you Friend buffs, just picture Joey and Chandler, except I'm not as funny....or hairy. I mean, some guys like fat 12 year olds that can weave hilarious one liners into the conversation okay? She, from the time we started hanging out with each other in 3rd grade, had always been more interested in guys than me. I mean, I like guys...don't get me wrong, but she was actively solving man-equations in her head that would ultimately lead to snagging their attention. Example:
In 3rd or 4th grade she had a massive crush on this kid named Daniel. Oh Daniel...you blonde haired, blue-eyed sweetums. Nicole and our little posse actually had a meeting to devise a plan to get his attention. I didn't have much to contribute, but I did know that Daniel always checked out the big dodgeball at lunch time. Bingo! No one ever fought him for his right to get the ball, but Nicole did. Attention-grabbing tactic number 1: She raised her hand so fast and enthusiastically that the teacher had no other choice but to hand over the ball. It was awesome. Next, we spent the majority of our lunch break trying to get that very same, coveted dodgeball, stuck into one of the large mesquite trees on the play ground. Why, you ask? Well, once the ball was securely stuck at the tippy toppy of the tree, Nicole ran over to Daniel (who was begrudgingly playing soccer) and asked him to please help us...err...her get the ball down from the tree. Genius. Seriously, what 4th grader comes up with something that awesome? I still remember Nicole and Daniel walking back to the school together after he had successfully retrieved the ball from the tree.
Besides all that, we have a lot of "boy" memories together. We both dated different 'Aarons' at the same time. At one point she liked a guy named Bob, and I don't remember much about that except that his name seemed so weird for a 16 year old. I guess it isn't weird now that he is probably 32 or something. I don't know...I think that is the only thing I remember about that. Boys would ask me about her a lot and, thinking back, I should have just handed out little business cards so I didn't have to keep repeating myself. "Yes she is single. She likes romantic comedies. Yes, she dances. I don't know if she'd date you...you ask her. Please leave her brunette, lonely friend alone."
We tied for 3rd place in our elementary school's science fair (boo yah!). She used to MAKE us learn dance steps behind the ramada at school and would not accept, "please let me be the audience" as an answer. It was actually pretty fun...but don't act too silly because Madam Nolie will not have the silliness! She was (and probably still is) a performer. An avid dancer in her younger days, she loved doing the hair, makeup, dancing, acting...thing. She was the first one to ever curl my hair in, like, 6th grade and did it all on her own. She did Brooke's hair too. There are pictures somewhere to prove it. I swore to myself that she'd be a makeup artist for celebrities some day. We went to the Monster Mash every year and she always had the coolest Halloween costumes. Anyway, lots more memories than just that, of course. I just remember the whole friendship as very fun...and dramatic. Ha! Loved it!
Note to self: I blame Flagstaff for all the relationships that have been compromised in my life. Beware.
Too Close to 30: A Friendship Reflection Part I
I'm getting uncomfortably close to 30 years old. 30. I can't even look at the number without my brain refusing to connect that I will actually be that age. It doesn't seem so old on other people, but when I try to imagine that I am going to be wearing this age in a little over a year and a half I begin to feel old and reflective. Someone throw me a cane and my glasses because I have been thinking a lot about the friends in my life who have, for whatever reason, stuck in my mind and heart for (almost) 30 years. Scoot up close to my rocking chair and listen closely. You know I will undoubtedly have to explain to others why they did not make this list. Just figure that if you did not make the list, it means we are hanging out all the time and our lives have not parted us in such a way as to make me have the NEED to reminisce about you.
Oh wait, no one reads this blog. Nevermind.
So, when I think of friends who are special to me, I think first of my friend Pat. I have known this guy since crimped hair and Thunder Cats were cool. He gave me my first kiss at the tender age of 5 (on my ear no less) and was my first "boyfriend". I don't remember much, except that when Tim Rothenburg blurted out to my first grade teacher, Mrs. Rosser, that, "Lindsey loooovvvveeess Pat and that they are 'boyfriends'," it embarrassed me to my very core. I even remember my smirking teacher's response, "Well, Pat is a very nice boy." I am pretty sure scraping me out from under the desk is but a lighthearted visual of how I felt. But she was right. Pat is really, a very nice boy.
One of the best summers of my life included Pat. He introduced me to several of my, now, musical favorites. He is cool like that. He likes all sorts of music. He taught me that there are worlds beyond country music and boy bands....if you can believe it. He really showed some of the nicest, most genuine acts of friendship that were, unfortunately, not always reciprocated by me. I still inwardly cringe at my insensitivity.
One of my most favorite memories was during that...no...okay, there are more than one. Sorry, I am thinking of all the fun times and I can't pick just one! Okay, probably sitting in his little car in the front of my parent's house talking for hours and hours. I was there to be dropped off, but we, apparently, had a lot to talk about. I remember there being a beach ball and a giant stuffed Orca Whale involved. He always had tons of weird stuff in the backseat of his car. Oh yeah, and collateral chicken, I believe, was exchanged that night. Hm. I wonder where that chicken went.
Anyway, the other nice memory I have involved our friend Gus who, I have no idea in this great day and age of Facebook, what has happened to him. If there is a place to fall off the face of the earth, I believe he must have found it. So, I was out with Pat and Gus, I don't remember where or when or what, but as they were driving me home (we all lived really close to each other) I started getting a fever and was sick. I was shivering in the backseat and, Pat's backseat being the bottomless pit of "stuff", there was a blanket so I was huddled under it. When they successfully got me home, they both told me to get out of the car and proceeded to make a "Lindsey Sandwich" to keep me warm from point A, the car, to point B, the house. I am pretty sure I just laughed the entire time. It was a very nice gesture. Nevermind that they came over the next day while my parents were gone at work to make me soup and saltines while I sat on the couch thinking they were nuts. Anyway, this and a dozen other stories I could tell. I should totally write a memoir.
The next person, naturally, is my friend Brooke. She is so creative. When were were but little tikes running around Collier Elementary, she was my very best friend. While the other girls wanted to dance behind the ramada or invoke the boys to chase them, Brooke and I would walk around the playground interviewing people with sticks. I was weird, okay? But at least I had someone to be weird with. We would make up elaborate stories about ghosts who haunted the playground and who, I assume, are still there today. Oh, and when I say "WE" it was mostly Brooke and her creative mind. I just lived in her imagination.
Throughout the elementary years, we spent a lot of time together and even published some awesome books for their prestigious "Kid's Corner" section of the library. Jealous are we? You should be. Our friendship also birthed the infamous "Why Guys" who continued on through middle school. (And if you were thinking I was an awesomely popular middle schooler based on who I am today, well, you'd be horribly mistaken.)
I remember being jealous of how quickly she could read, how precisely she could type, and how easily she could spell....correctly. She was always the one playing Oregon Trail in our little closet of a computer room first, because she always finished her typing exercises before anyone else. I was always included in her Oregon Trail wagon attendee list....but darn it if dysentery always sent me to an early grave.
She was always very at home in nature. When we'd go play at her house, she'd show me how to mix food coloring and sugar together to make a magical concoction of...magic? I can't remember what it was for, but we'd skip around sprinkling it on different plants and cactus. At home, I made my own sugar/food coloring mixture....and I probably ate it because I was perpetually fat from age 9 to 13. Mmm...pure sugar....
I loved being outside and hanging out with Brooke, because she so obviously loved being outside herself.
To be continued.....my kids are up and they are pulling at me for attention. So sorry sweet blog...thus is the life of a (almost) 30 year old mom.
Next up: Nicole, Laura and Megan
Oh wait, no one reads this blog. Nevermind.
So, when I think of friends who are special to me, I think first of my friend Pat. I have known this guy since crimped hair and Thunder Cats were cool. He gave me my first kiss at the tender age of 5 (on my ear no less) and was my first "boyfriend". I don't remember much, except that when Tim Rothenburg blurted out to my first grade teacher, Mrs. Rosser, that, "Lindsey loooovvvveeess Pat and that they are 'boyfriends'," it embarrassed me to my very core. I even remember my smirking teacher's response, "Well, Pat is a very nice boy." I am pretty sure scraping me out from under the desk is but a lighthearted visual of how I felt. But she was right. Pat is really, a very nice boy.
One of the best summers of my life included Pat. He introduced me to several of my, now, musical favorites. He is cool like that. He likes all sorts of music. He taught me that there are worlds beyond country music and boy bands....if you can believe it. He really showed some of the nicest, most genuine acts of friendship that were, unfortunately, not always reciprocated by me. I still inwardly cringe at my insensitivity.
One of my most favorite memories was during that...no...okay, there are more than one. Sorry, I am thinking of all the fun times and I can't pick just one! Okay, probably sitting in his little car in the front of my parent's house talking for hours and hours. I was there to be dropped off, but we, apparently, had a lot to talk about. I remember there being a beach ball and a giant stuffed Orca Whale involved. He always had tons of weird stuff in the backseat of his car. Oh yeah, and collateral chicken, I believe, was exchanged that night. Hm. I wonder where that chicken went.
Anyway, the other nice memory I have involved our friend Gus who, I have no idea in this great day and age of Facebook, what has happened to him. If there is a place to fall off the face of the earth, I believe he must have found it. So, I was out with Pat and Gus, I don't remember where or when or what, but as they were driving me home (we all lived really close to each other) I started getting a fever and was sick. I was shivering in the backseat and, Pat's backseat being the bottomless pit of "stuff", there was a blanket so I was huddled under it. When they successfully got me home, they both told me to get out of the car and proceeded to make a "Lindsey Sandwich" to keep me warm from point A, the car, to point B, the house. I am pretty sure I just laughed the entire time. It was a very nice gesture. Nevermind that they came over the next day while my parents were gone at work to make me soup and saltines while I sat on the couch thinking they were nuts. Anyway, this and a dozen other stories I could tell. I should totally write a memoir.
The next person, naturally, is my friend Brooke. She is so creative. When were were but little tikes running around Collier Elementary, she was my very best friend. While the other girls wanted to dance behind the ramada or invoke the boys to chase them, Brooke and I would walk around the playground interviewing people with sticks. I was weird, okay? But at least I had someone to be weird with. We would make up elaborate stories about ghosts who haunted the playground and who, I assume, are still there today. Oh, and when I say "WE" it was mostly Brooke and her creative mind. I just lived in her imagination.
Throughout the elementary years, we spent a lot of time together and even published some awesome books for their prestigious "Kid's Corner" section of the library. Jealous are we? You should be. Our friendship also birthed the infamous "Why Guys" who continued on through middle school. (And if you were thinking I was an awesomely popular middle schooler based on who I am today, well, you'd be horribly mistaken.)
I remember being jealous of how quickly she could read, how precisely she could type, and how easily she could spell....correctly. She was always the one playing Oregon Trail in our little closet of a computer room first, because she always finished her typing exercises before anyone else. I was always included in her Oregon Trail wagon attendee list....but darn it if dysentery always sent me to an early grave.
She was always very at home in nature. When we'd go play at her house, she'd show me how to mix food coloring and sugar together to make a magical concoction of...magic? I can't remember what it was for, but we'd skip around sprinkling it on different plants and cactus. At home, I made my own sugar/food coloring mixture....and I probably ate it because I was perpetually fat from age 9 to 13. Mmm...pure sugar....
I loved being outside and hanging out with Brooke, because she so obviously loved being outside herself.
To be continued.....my kids are up and they are pulling at me for attention. So sorry sweet blog...thus is the life of a (almost) 30 year old mom.
Next up: Nicole, Laura and Megan
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