Something Old

My dear friend Dari......when I am with her I laugh until I cry....can't you see!

The four muskateers at our 20 year reunion, we are all the dearest of friends. Darci, in the green shirt knows more about me than I care for her to know!!

There is nothing better than an old friend. Don't get me wrong, I love meeting and getting to know new friends and every once in a while I will find a new friend that feels like an old friend, that is a treat. There is just something amazing about someone who has seen you through it all. We tend to get better with age (at least I hope I have) but I love knowing there are still people out there who knew me when I was raw, less refined and lots more embarrassing.

This came to light when a dear friend of mine moved away to another state. I met her when she moved into our ward (church) many years ago. When they moved here she was as poor as a church mouse mainly because her husband was just starting his orthopedic residency. She and I connected immediately. She was a kindred spirit for many reasons, one being that she was a doer. She started a business while her husband was in med school and she ran it by herself (often with a baby in tow) to make ends meet.

When her husband graduated and they moved away I knew that people would meet her and and see her differently than I did. She would be the beautiful, fashionable doctors wife who was wealthy and seemed to have it all but I knew better. Yes, she is so beautiful that she could wear a potato sack and still look stunning , but I knew her when all she could afford was a potato sack (ha ha). I knew her when she scoured clearance racks and only bought things, not just on sale, but sale items that were on final clearance. I knew her when she had NO PRIDE and to make a few extra dollars sold snow cones at the July 4th parade...It was a sight to behold as she wandered among the patrons and peddled her wares. I knew her when she struggled, cried, and prayed that there was a better tomorrow. I came to love her through these hard times and I build a deep respect for her because I saw her resilience and character in the face of adversity. She was more beautiful inside than out. Here is her blog if you would like to meet this amazing woman who I feel honored to call friend.

So lately I have had the chance to reconnect with many old friends. Each time I connect with one I think "Oh she is the one who tried to reassure me when at 15 years old I tried to show 20 plus people that I could do the splits up the wall and unexpectedly, in all my glory, I got to full split and loudly passed gas, fell to the ground with hot tears forming and screamed "Everyone go AWAY". She was there to get me through that.

Then there is my friend who in 6th grade thought it would be fun to play basket ball then convinced me it would be more fun if I attached the suction cup hoop to my forehead and acted as the moving BB hoop. Oh we laughed and laughed for the 30 min we played until I removed the hoop and realized I had a 4 inch round purple hickey smack dab in the center of my forehead. That was when I cut bangs for the first time and she reassured me that they were cute and that no one could see.

These were the bangs that covered the hickie, the hickie was gone at the taking of this picture but what I can't figure out is....why was I trying to feather them????

And who can forget the friend who, in my high school days when I seemed desperate for attention and would do anything to get it, took half the blame for breaking the glass windows to the high school office because I just had to joy ride the janitors dolly up and down the hall. She stood by my side as we went into the office and fessed up. She seriously took half the blame when I was the one at fault.

Our early morning seminary class....I was in the white shirt and the one who helped take the blame is peeking behind me to the left.

Of course there are my Sisters who could tell more embarrassing stories about me than this blog could hold and there is my husband who got me when I was still pretty much a mess in many ways. He knows me and that is a vulneralble thing because there are a whole lot of secrets I wouldn't want known.....he holds them all in his heart. This pic was taken when we were first married and headed to the middle east for a semester together.

There are so many more that I haven't mentioned, cousins, missionary companions, roomates. I have spent a lot of my life feeling awkward and sometimes just plain embarrassing. I always felt that I lacked a few key social graces but I have tried to learn from my mistakes and do better next time. I am sure grateful for all the friends who stuck with me through it all and knew me in my less graceful days. That is not inferring that I am in anyway graceful now.....just less ungraceful than in the past.