Lisa

This is Lisa, my best friend from high school. I have about 20 pictures of her similar to this, where you don't see all of her face.

Right now, she's probably plotting my demise for posting it on my blog, but it's her fault for sending it to me. Man, I love her glasses. I want them. Badly.

This is the person who knows the entire Bagel story. She knows who the TBW were. She knows as much as I do about Uncle Bobby, now known as "Anthony." She's ridden with me in The Yellow Iguana, which later became my car and lasted until Ty was a year old. She even knows it wasn't yellow!

After 12 years of begging and pleading on my part, Lisa FINALLY has email! We've been emailing, and it's funny how differently we remember those two years of high school when we were inseparable. My take is: She was quiet and wonderful, I was loud and obnoxious. She was/is the smartest person I've ever known, I ditched homework like it was diseased. She plays the flute beautifully, I faked it and had an airy tone. (We both switched to sax for Jazz Ensemble, though! That was fun! Except for Danny Miller. What an oddball.)

We didn't have any classes together except for band. It took me years to figure out this was because she was an honors student; I just thought it was bad luck. I remember INSISTING that I type her report for her (this way I didn't have to go home so she could do her homework) and she probably had to do it all over after I left. I kept typing "perhaps" as "prehaps," and there wasn't a backspace or delete key on a typewriter!

Her Mom, pictured below, was so wonderful to me. She, too, will probably plot my demise after this. It's Lisa's fault!

That's it. I'm calling Lisa and Mary to come with me to pick out glasses. I can never find any this cool.

This woman let me stay at her house while they were scoping out houses in Ohio because I had a license and her sister (the adult with an adorable baby) didn't know how to drive a standard. THEN, she let me use her car. A convertible VW BUG! My dream car! I got to drive it to the beach and everything! I was supposed to have the idle checked while she was gone, but I never was good at homework assignments.

Anyway, I was always staying for dinner. She would say, "Are you staying? I need to know how many plates." She would make this big pot of spaghetti sauce, which is how I make mine now, and she wouldn't use a bit of salt in anything she cooked. I'm sure I highly insulted her when I asked for the salt and kept pouring it on, but she would smile and say, "I don't use salt." She would also have this counselling group over all the time, referred to as "the Sickos" by the rest of the family. I can't tell you how much I learned from her, especially about my own family. She taught me to see things from THEIR point of view, especially when it came to one of my brothers. It didn't make their actions right, but it sure gave me understanding, which allowed room for grace.

I used to call their house "early" in the morning (9:00) and they would pick up the phone and hang it up again. Thank God there wasn't caller I.D. back then! Here's where I first admit it was me, but I really only did it once. Or twice.

Two weeks after we graduated, Lisa's family moved to Ohio. I haven't mentioned the rest of her family because I'm already on the hit list of two of them. I'm sure one of the unmentioned has connections in New York and I should be very afraid. When I said goodbye to Lisa, I cried all the way home. Her Dad drove me and was so, so kind, allowing me some silence. I didn't want him to feel worse than he already did! I have been missing her ever since. Two weeks after she left, John moved to the desert (a 2.5 hour drive). I was completely lost, but I know those years were for my growth and I don't regret them.

I flew out for her wedding with Ty when he was 8 months old (she called him "The Sack"). I also ruined her honeymoon because I was too scared to call a cab, so they came and got me and drove me to the airport. That's the last time I've had a hug from her.

Now we're still pretty far apart, but the Internet puts her RIGHT HERE. I'm so thankful! She keeps me real. She puts up with me, has seen me at my worst, but loves me anyway.

I am and always have been thankful for her friendship. Now I want to introduce her to all my friends here, so they can know how wonderful she is, too.

Don't deny it, Lisa. You da bomb.

And you need to blog, so people can see how funny you are when you write, and they can laugh out loud like I do. One of my favorite Lisa lines on a letter she sent referred to the scented pen she used. She wrote, "Does this smell like dungeon moss and rotting chains? It's supposed to smell like grape."