Part Two

The continuation of my friends tribute. First up, Chloe.

Now Chloe and I never were super close, but, that girl could keep a secret if I was ever bursting at the seams with one. I could tell her anything and feel confident that it would remain a secret. The quietest one of our bunch, inside that quietness was a devious little sense of humor. Oooh, I liked that. She could play stunts and tricks on people and nobody would ever guess it was her! She would sit back and go "Hmm, I wonder who could've done that?" People just never suspected that quiet girl of doing anything of the sort. She was always fun to have around and when boys entered the picture, she was the first one to experience a lot of things and we would all gather around and listen to her talk about it. Oh, how enthralled we all were. Even DeLisa, who pretended to be disgusted, I'm sure was just as interested as the rest of us were.

I was to be a bride's maid at her called off wedding. I have admired her for that act of terrified desperation. I know other people who know they should call of their weddings but don't because they feel the ball is rolling too fast and couldn't possibly be stopped at the last minute. But she stopped it, two days before the wedding. And it was a big wedding with four of us bride's maids already with hand sewn dresses that were made specifically for us and died shoes to match. All four of us bride's maids were so relieved when she called it off. I went to a wedding last Saturday where the bride had FIVE bride's maids and all five of them were smiling as big as the bride. That's the way it should be. At Chloe's wedding, I don't think the four of us maids would have been smiling. Choking back bitter tears, maybe.

But, she called it off in the nick of time. The guy went a little mad for a while, but he soon recovered and married someone else and started a new life. Good for him. Chloe started a new life, too. With one of our classmates, Keeling. Now they have three gorgeous blond kids and a spotless house. I'm so jealous of that clean house! It would take a live in house keeper to keep my house that clean. Her and Keeling and Mike and me are the only two couples from our Wyandotte class of 1991. And both of us are still married...Yay! Everybody else married someone older, or younger, or not even from the same school. Which is more common than marrying someone that you graduated with. Maybe because neither one of us married our high school sweethearts, just someone who happened to be in our class that we never took a second look at until we were out of high school.

Next up, Christy. What can I say? The silliest, most funny, most fun to be around girl I ever was friends with. Always ready with a smile, or a funny story to make you laugh. You can't help but smile when you are around this lady. Of course, Christy, you know I have to tell our two favorite stories. They are priceless and every time we are together, they get brought up and we laugh all over again.

We were always friends in high school, but it was after we both got married and had babies that we really got close. She started working in my Mom's beauty shop that just happen to be right next door to my house. I worked over there on Mondays and Tuesdays and she worked those days with me. Shael was six months old when she started and her son was a year old. Not only did our kids get to grow up together, but we got some grown up company besides our husbands and our husbands even liked each other.

One Monday we were trying on clothes, something we did quite often since it's a clothing store also. Christy decided she wanted to try on something but use a girdle underneath to see if it helped smooth out any bulges she might have had. We knew that there was a girdle around there someplace that was pants. Actually, I think they came down just right above the knee. We looked and looked and couldn't find it. We thought Mom must've sold it without us knowing about it. All we could find was this skirt girdle. So Christy starts putting it on. And she squeezes and huffs and puffs and finally she gets this girdle on. It's super tight and she can barely walk. I was kind of giggling at watching her try to put this thing on. When it's finally on and her legs won't even take a regular stride I said "How could anyone wear this? You can't even walk normal!" Then I saw this "thing" on her butt. I kind of half way laughed and said "What's this" and grabbed this wide tail looking thing that was on her butt. She turned around and looked at it and starts laughing hysterically. She finally managed to stutter out "It's the pants!" Turns out she had on the pants we were looking for only she put both of her legs in one leg hole. The other pant leg was hanging off her butt. I laughed and I laughed and I laughed. I laughed so hard that I literally dropped to the floor and was rolling around trying to catch my breath. That pant leg was so tight, it was all the way on and up to her waist, that when I calmed down enough, I had to pull them off her. I got on my knees beside her and tugged and yanked until they finally came off. Tears still streaming down my face. We had the hardest time even telling my Mom about it because we kept laughing so hard. We told our husbands about it and no one else thought it was nearly as funny as it really was. Just got a few chuckles out of it. Trust me, it was a riot.

This next story involves K-Mart and Easter lilies. Her and I, along with our husbands, had gone to Joplin for dinner and a movie. I'm not sure if this was the same night we went and saw "Blink" and Christy and I screamed all the way through it while Mark and Mike kept looking at each other and rolling their eyes. But anyway, we were at K-Mart and it was around Easter and they had their Easter lilies on display in a center aisle. I bent down and took a big sniff and they smelled oh, so good. I said "Mmmm, Christy, you've got to smell these, they smell so good", so she bends down and takes a big sniff. "Mmmm, they do smell good" she said. But when she stood back up and looked at me (I'm having a hard time getting this typed,I keep laughing) I immediately started laughing my butt off. I couldn't even talk so I pointed to my own nose. She put both hands over her nose and took off running looking for a mirror. She found one not too far away in the men's clothing and took a look at herself. The entire end of her nose was covered with bright orange pollen. I hadn't meant for her to do that, I didn't even know those flowers would do that. But when she looked back up at me and her nose looked like a clown nose, it stuck a chord in me that got me tickled beyond talking. I made my way over to her, still laughing, and she was laughing by then and I kept trying to tell her that I didn't do it on purpose. Our husbands found us in the men's clothing, doubled over and making quite a scene. They walked right on by like they didn't know us. Which only made us laugh all the harder. When we calmed down enough, we found them at the front of the store waiting for us. We told them the whole story when we got out in the car. Once again, they hardly even laughed and Christy and I were in the back seat crying all over again because we were laughing so hard. You'd think they'd at least laugh at us laughing, but after we told them our story, they did a small chuckle then started talking about something altogether different. Christy and I looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders and laughed all over again.

Christy and I also share a love for used book stores. When they moved to West Plains, Mo, we came out and visited and spent the night at their house. Mike went to work with Mark the next day on his Frito Lay route and Christy and I spent the day browsing through an old used book store. It was there that I found my beloved hard back copy of The Thorn Birds. I was prepared to spend any amount of money because I had been looking for a hard back copy for 10 years or more. It's an original 1977 hard back edition still with it's dust cover. For $1.50. I squealed right there in that book store. What was the name of that bookstore?

Once again, life got in the way and I don't get to see or talk to Christy much anymore. Our kids are in the same grade at the same school now, so we get to see each other at various school functions. The woman who sat behind us at the Spring Band Concert said she enjoyed sitting behind us and hearing us have such a good time with each other's company.

She called a couple times to check on me when my Pastor passed away a few months ago. Thank you, honey, that was so nice of you and I appreciated it more than you'll ever know. Call me back and give me your phone number again because when Shael cleaned the living room a while back, she threw away the piece of paper that had your number written on it. Of all times for her to decide to actually throw something away. I even had it right next to the phone. It also had the number of the math tutor on it, so I'm thinking she may have done it on purpose.

Then there's DeLisa. A girl so temperamental, I could never understand her. A girl who once she started her period started thinking that if vampires were real, why didn't they just go after girls who were on the rag instead of biting people on the necks and making them into vampires, too. Thus the phrase "I vant to suck your vagina!" started. Any body else remember this or am I just a sick individual who only remembers the worst things? On the last day of school one year, we found this sickly little frog over by the band room door. He was nearly dead ( I hope) and we kept trying to make it jump but it wouldn't. So, instead of leaving it alone, we, these two little wicked girls, started playing kick ball with it. Kick Frog. We'd kick it then pretend to run to first, second, third, then home. "And the crowd goes wild...haaaaaahhhhhh!" We kicked it back and forth like a hackey sack for a while. Then we took photos of the crime scene. I still have a picture of that frog. A close up of the poor creature with it's arms and legs all pulled up against its body. We finally abandoned it when the bell rang it and we were free for the summer. I never thought of it again until I got my pictures back. Oh, the poor frog, what were we thinking? You've heard the phrase "Ignorance gone to seed"? I think that was "boredom gone to seed".

My high school sweetheart was her first cousin and for some reason she was adamantly against me dating him. So we quit being friends over a stupid boy. When Jerry and I were no longer an item, she had herself a serious boyfriend and didn't talk much to me anymore. After high school and our brief stint in college, we became closer than we ever were when we were younger. She got married and told me that she then looked at everybody differently. Even the teachers. "They've had SEX!" She told me. Well, yeah! Who hasn't, I wanted to say, but I just laughed and told her she'd get over that. And I'm assuming she did.

She had a baby girl about a year after I had my baby girl. Then her life went sour and I didn't even know about it until she finally started to do something about it. She kept it a secret and I felt so bad that she had to carry that burden alone for so long. She lost about 180 pounds, and his name was Gary. Then she became the quintessential single mom. I wanted to do something to help her so bad, but I never knew what. So, I did my usual, the only thing I ever know to do when I want to help someone but don't know exactly what they need. I kept calling her and sending her cards and letters in the mail to try my best at encouraging her. She was working full time and going to school to become a teacher.

Our daughters were in the same pre school together, her daughter in the 3 year old program and mine in the 4 year old program. I went every Tuesday to volunteer. Every Tuesday the entire school year. The teacher there was crappy so say the least. It seemed she would home in on a certain kid and just berate them until they were in tears. Shael was quiet enough to stay below the radar, but one day she homed in on DeLisa's daughter. It might as well have been my daughter and I let this teacher know about it in no uncertain terms. I went to her room after all the kids were out of there, shut the door behind me and prepared for battle. I hate confrontation, but this time it was called for. She tried to fight back but I did not back down. This lady had never seen me like this and honestly, I had never felt like that before. I won. She apologized, not only to me, but to the little girl. When DeLisa got word of it, she was so grateful for having someone take up for her daughter in her place. This teacher, I think, is what inspired DeLisa to go back to school to become a teacher herself. She felt like there needed to be more teachers out there that actually cared for the children. Now she's a teacher, and I'm sure she's an awesome one. She's also found herself a nice man, that all us girls instantly liked (not one of us ever liked her first husband but would never say anything to interfere). She married him and now has a baby brother for her daughter.

I hardly ever get to see DeLisa, about like Christy. Her daughter still goes to Wyandotte and is still a year under Shael. I saw her at the Spring Band Concert, too and you know what she said to me? "Remember that little game of kick ball we played out there on the last day of school that one year?" Oh yeah, I've still got the pictures.

Now, my new friends. Kami and Valerie. I met them both at Jack & Jill's almost two years ago. It really seems like we've known each other forever. Kami and I became instant friends, but Valerie and I took a little more time. But now, I consider her one of my closest friends. I can and usually do, tell her everything.

Kami, like Christy, shares a passion for book stores with me. We can go and spend an entire days in various book stores. And the girl can cook. Yum! She has her own catering business and everything. She's about 7 years younger than me, about the same difference between me and my sister, but age makes no difference. She's very conservative and makes me feel like the wild one. But when you really get to know her, she's really not as conservative as you at first think. She's funny, smart, cute, and I really miss being around her every day. She likes riddles. She was always trying to stump me, and I was always trying to pull one over on her. If my girlhood friends were my secret keepers of my girlhood, then Kami is my secret keeper of my womanhood. I would trust her with anything.

One day at work, I asked her if she could see her own lips when she puckered her mouth out real big. So, she pooched her lips out real fat and her eyes crossed when she was looking down. I started laughing and she stopped and went "Oh! You did that on purpose!"

Then last but not least, there's Valerie. I would say, that other than my BFF, N, Valerie is my BF. It took a while for our friendship to develop, but it really did develop into a strong relationship. I go to her for her opinion on just about everything I need an opinion on. She's a hair dresser, too, so I can even go to her on that subject! I swear, when that woman is around, she brings out the comedian in me. We really do play the parts well together, I'm the punch line person and she's the straight man, or woman, or whatever. We worked together at J&J and now we work together at the Day Care. I don't know how many times we've gotten our director to laughing. She'll go "Oh, oh, oh! Stacie! Tell them that one story!" and I'll know just exactly what "one" she's talking about. We work so well together, we really do bring out the best in each other. When some day, I open up my own day care, I want her there with me.

So, there's my friends. I hope you feel like you know them now. Or, if they're you, I hope you see how I view you. As my friend, whom I love dearly.