Make New Friends But Keep the Old

Last night, I went out with four high school classmates under the guise of starting to plan our--GULP--25th reunion. That's such a HORRIFYING number! LOL! We agreed it just doesn't seem possible that nearly a quarter century has passed since we departed high school. We also decided, in the six or so minutes we spent talking about the reunion, that we want something casual and simple next summer, perhaps at a bar by the beach. Sounds good to me! In planning our 20th reunion, I became good friends with a classmate I hadn't known all that well in high school. We traveled in different circles back then, but today, with daughters the same age (who even spent a year in the same 2nd grade class), we found that we have so much in common that we laugh like two fools who've been friends forever whenever we see each other.

I was struck last night by the "anything goes" tone to our conversation. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, was off limits. On the way home, I wondered why five women who haven't spent all that much time together over the last quarter century found it so easy to share things we wouldn't tell most of the people we are closer to today. I decided there's comfort in having known people so long you can't remember not knowing them. Maybe you weren't friends "back then," but you shared a common experience in a time and place that, like it or not, binds you for a lifetime. Five women with nine children between them, a menagerie of pets and husbands, one divorced, one who's had significant health problems, united by a common factor--we were members of the Middletown High School Class of 1984. And judging by the screams of laughter that attracted more than a few stares from others in the bar, the reunion promises to be a good time. My classmates were thrilled to hear that I'd become a published author since we last saw each other. Two had already read Line of Scrimmage and the other two were planning to buy it today. Their support and enthusiasm were overwhelming, and it was fun to share it with them.

I got home last night and realized I totally forgot to blog yesterday! DOH! And here I thought I was getting into the habit! In other weekend news, my cousin Jen called yesterday afternoon to invite my kids to sleep over. She had her teenaged niece for the night and her own son (my son's great pal). There's good news and bad news, she told the kids. The good news is I want you to come sleep over. Yay! The bad news is we're going to church at 5. "What kind of sleep over is that?" my son Jake asked, crestfallen. My husband and I snickered behind our hands and sent them on their way to church! I let Jen know that her sleep over approval rating hovered in negative numbers before it even started. Jen, being Jen, was just fine with that!

Jake got even by getting up at 5:18 a.m.