Lost and Found

A period of feeling pretty good and regaining some mobility after surgeries and accidents found me anxious to try my wings and I persuaded husband Walker that we should go to Pasadena for the BCS National Championship game where our alma mater, Auburn University, was one of the two teams in contention for the national title.  It was a whim, and Walker probably would have preferred watching the game on TV, which he did yesterday while I caught up on some housekeeping chores, but I saw it as a last ditch effort to have a little fun, do something we both would enjoy,  and it turned out to be a mini-reunion with some of our favorite college friends.

This event wasn't as well coordinated as my high school reunion, but it was absolutely delightful to reunite with old friends, share stories from our shared past, see how everybody is doing, and make new memories.  Most of us are in a surprisingly good place for seventyish, and although dinner conversation did veer toward medical coverage and procedures a bit, we still found time to laugh at ourselves and look forward as much as back.  There was a new wife to get to know and love, several spouses that didn't know each other, relationships that had been tethered by not much more than Christmas Cards or not at all, but underneath it all, we were still pretty much the same people we knew and loved back in the '60s.  I probably smiled more in that forty eight hour period than I normally do in an entire month.

I'm getting more


used to stepping outside my comfort zone now, and am not nearly so anxious when I do, and the afterglow lasts and lasts.  Our team didn't win...but we did!  War Eagle!!!

For previous thoughts on a similar subject go to http://onlycasualobservations.blogspot.com/2011/07/i-been-searchin.html



Blesssings,
Janie

Not so Bleak Almost Mid-Winter

Still browsing through old posts which mostly never got read by anyone but my family and a few close friends, and I found this one that seems particularly apt today. http://onlycasualobservations.blogspot.com/2011/01/in-bleak-mid-winter.html .

 The advice for coping with Winter doesn't include spending a ridiculous amount of money to fly to California for a long overdue reunion with some of my favorite friends from college, but that's exactly what's going to happen.  Auburn is once again going to the National Championship Game...and this time we'll be there in all our Orange and Blue glory.

The trip kind of fits with my mantra of doing things outside my comfort zone as often as possible.  Not that visiting my wonderful baby girl and her sweet little family as they await the arrival of the new baby is uncomfortable...far from it.  We'll have a deluxe garage apartment, and lots of hugs and kisses from Emmett for sure, but reuniting with  folks you haven't seen in fifty years is always a little disconcerting for me.

There have been e-mails and phone calls to firm up arrangements and the good natured banter has convinced me that this is going to be a time to remember. I suspect  we're all not just  older but  wiser, and mostly more accepting of whatever comes our way.  I absolutely can't wait!

Please feel free to add your favorite way to cope with Winter below...it's easy now, and can be anonymous if you like!

Blessings,
Janie

You Can Go Home Again

Since my mother died, my trips back to Sweet Home Alabama have been few and far between. I guess the pain of losing her and all my connections at one time seemed to just be too much. Without a bedroom and bath awaiting me anytime I happened to have a whim to visit, visiting now required making arrangements and imposing on others that might not find my spontaneity charming, just inconvenient.


A few years ago I made some tentative connections with a friend from school and we’ve kept in touch. When Fran found herself chairing the fiftieth reunion for our high school class, I somehow got involved too. Now I had a purpose in going home, at least occasionally. Fairly nice hotels aren’t too expensive, and it would be a chance to visit my brother and his family and my oldest and dearest friend. So, I agreed to attend a meeting of the reunion committee, and ended up with a nice invitation to stay with my friend…and her new husband…so we planned a weekend visit. My brother and his wife were free, so we scheduled a day with them at the lake and an evening of college football.

I can’t remember when I’ve been so blissfully happy.

Montgomery has changed. The action is primarily in a part of town that I didn’t even know existed when I left there fifty years ago. There were nice restaurants I’d never visited, new developments designed for empty nesters, and it seemed like a great place to be.

I found our old lake house mostly unchanged, and the changes that my brother and his wife have made have enhanced enjoyment of the beautiful clear lake without losing the charm of an early 1950’s style cabin. We rode around and looked at all the fabulous mansions sprawling around the lake, but when I arrived back at the cabin and sat on the screened porch overlooking the tranquil lake, I hoped it would always be home to me.

My meeting with old classmates to plan the reunion had created a bit of anxiety on my part. I had not seen most of them in at least thirty years, some in nearly fifty. I was never really a leader in my class, and kind of hung out on the fringes of the action, usually unaware of how hard those leaders worked in extra-curricular activities because I spent most of my free time either with my nose in a book or on the phone with my boyfriend. Would they recognize that I’d found some gifts of my own as I matured? Would they discount the possibility of a dumpy little housewife being able to make a contribution? Would we even recognize each other or have memories? All those fears vanished as we greeted each other with hugs around mostly well padded bodies, shared a sandwich and a glass of wine, and got down to business.

My contribution to the meeting was warmly received, and I got more positive strokes in that one night than I often get in a whole year. It was blissful!

Part of my time in Montgomery was spent getting acquainted with Florence’s charming new husband, Howard. We laughed and told stories and got to know each other. We shared some delicious meals, and began a new kind of friendship as adult couples. I also squeezed in brief visit to her Aunt Ruth, who lives in the house where my mother spent her last couple of years, and one with my oldest nephew on his thirtieth birthday.

I can’t wait to go home again!

Blessings,
Janie

Friday Flashback: Feeling Fourteen Fifty Years Later

Friday Flashbacks are sponsored by my friend Anne Glamore over at My Tiny Kingdom. (Link on right side of this page.)

My teens were definitely not the happiest time of my life. If my friend Barbara is correct about reincarnation, I hope I return as a life form for which adolescence is a non-event. This pic is from my brief stint as a member of the in crowd...the cheerleaders!

This week I decided to step out on Facebook and find my own friends instead of piggybacking on my children’s connections. And lo and behold…I found a site for my high school class! There were only a couple of people on it when I found it, but I knew them, so I sent them a short note and asked them to be my friend. When they responded, you would have thought I suddenly had a prom date. Now there are a few more.

Anytime I happen on a connection from the past I’m a little hesitant…okay, a lot hesitant…about how to pursue it. I’m still hanging out on the fringes of the cool kids, not wanting to seem too intrusive, but really, really wanting to know how their lives turned out.

Do we have more in common than we did in the sixties? Has anyone else had a child with a disability? (I know of two, but there may be others.) Do they worry about their retirement plans or have bad knees or hips? Who has had cancer and survived? Who is still married to their high school sweethearts…or their second or third forever love? Is anyone single who might like to meet one of my single friends? Nah, even I wouldn’t touch that one. Who is no longer with us? Regrettably, two from this photo.

I’m realizing that I crave more connection than I used to, and I hope some of my long lost cyber friends will still care what happened to me. Maybe someone will want to share memories of prank calls and sneaking out at night to meet boys in the back yard or floating on an innertube at Lake Martin for hours on end hoping someone would come by in a boat and offer a ride. Who has my memories?

Blessings,
Janie

I Did It

I have just spent thirty minutes figuring out how to insert my picture on Facebook. It’s not like I love this picture, but the sketches they provide if you don’t provide one are kind of creepy. This task involved saving something on my desktop and everything, and I did it. You would think I were a three year old who has finally learned to use the potty.

Will I remember how to do it next time? Hope I won’t have to. This pic is the one I selected for my obituary a couple of years ago when I was undergoing a really touchy surgery. I lived, and hope no one needs this picture anytime soon. It looks enough like I did when I was younger so that people of my generation will at least recognize me, and enough like I look now that my grandchildren will too. I’ll try to come up with a new one every ten years or so, but his one is it until further notice.

I rarely browse Facebook, in fact, really don’t quite get it. I’m not sure why anyone would want to know what acquaintances of their friends and relatives are doing, but I’m sure there’s some logic behind it. My friends have my e-mail address and blog readers can easily find me by Googling my name and leave a comment on my blog. (I REALLY love having comments by the way!)

Actually, the more I think about it, maybe I do get Facebook after all. It’s a pretty easy way to reconnect. I never turn down anyone who asks to be my friend so if you do facebook, I'd love to be your friend. The magical carpet of the internet has happily connected me with people that I thought were lost but now are found, at least in cyberspace. I love that.

I hope I always treasure family and friend connections, even when they involve doing something hard.

Blessings,
Janie