Ten Things Tuesday
Anne Shirley, she of Green Gables fame, used to say that if you could sit in silence with someone for a long period of time and feel comfortable, the two of you were true friends and would be forever.
I have had this experience twice in a one-week period, and both times, I smiled and KNEW that I was with a good friend and that it would be forever. As I write this post, I’m sitting with a dear friend and even though a great distance separates us, the magic of the internet closes any gaps and lets us sit and work together as though a cubicle wall were the only thing that separates us.
Friendship is such a wonderful thing. That sounds so trite and obvious, but I really wonder how many of us take it for granted sometimes, not realizing that a true friendship is a jewel far more rare than even a true love or a winning lottery ticket.
A true friendship is better than either of those two things, if each stood alone. Of course, a true love will include a true friendship, but a true friendship can stand alone.
The winning lottery ticket would sweeten the pot, but I’d choose the friend over the check any day.
Thank you, dear wonderful friends. You both know who you are.
I’ve been neglecting Ten Things Tuesday lately. I have no excuse. I just didn’t do it. I don’t accept that from my students but it’s all I’ve got right now.
1. Follett is now running the college bookstore and they are doing a terrible job. TERRIBLE.
2. Today was the first day of classes for me. So far, so good.
3. I forgot to eat today. Oops.
4. My friend is right. Corinthians IS one of the best ones.
5. My daughter sent me some pictures of her brief vacation. She’s beautiful in those pictures, just as she is in real life. Just simply beautiful.
6. My son came down for a visit and went back home today. I miss him already. The big company bathroom is covered with flaming red hairs. I’ll tend to that tomorrow.
7. Friends used to sew or knit when they visited. Now they sit in front of adjoining computers and visit. Well, my friend and I did, anyway.
8. My upside-down tomatoes are doing beautifully.
9. I love to hear Hayley Westenra sing.
10. I also love the Five Blind Boys of Alabama.
I have to get up early tomorrow, so I’d best go to bed before it’s terribly late. Then again, since it’s almost 2:00 a.m., I’ve already missed that cue, huh.
Compared to my schedule most nights, though, going to bed at 2:00 a.m. is pretty good. I hope I can get to sleep; I’m not used to “giving in” until 4:30 or 5:00.
And, if I’ve waited this long, I can wait until tomorrow to eat something.
Things I Haven't Done Yet
There are many things I haven’t done yet: some, because I have no desire to do them and never will; others, because I just haven’t got around to it yet.
Here is my first Monday: Things I Haven’t Done Yet post.
As of this moment in time, I have not yet:
1. Watched a single episode of Oprah.
2. Seen Titanic.
3. Been able to sit through an entire episode of Everybody in This Show Whines A Lot Everybody Loves Raymond without gagging.
4. Been to New York.
5. Ridden in public transportation that wasn’t in a theme park.
6. Used an ATM machine.
7. Tasted a Krispy Kreme doughnut.
8. Been to Europe.
9. Learned to be compassionate with willful ignorance.
10. Figured out why a school needs 10 assistant principals.
What have YOU not done yet?
Everything I Know About Sex I Learned At Baptist Camp
When I was a kid, I went to Baptist Camp. I went by myself, and it was the longest week of my life. Everyone else in my cabin was a lot older than I was, and all of them came with a friend.
Before the first day was over, most of the girls in my cabin also had a boyfriend. I was in the sixth grade, and as far as I was concerned, boys still had cooties.
Every activity was done with partners, or groups. The friends all clustered together, and a counselor always had to “assign” someone to play or work with me. I was such a nerdy little kid, dangerously naive and socially inept, and when it came to approaching these girls, I was at a complete and total loss.
I also knew practically nothing about the birds and the bees, but at the end of the week, I knew a lot more. Church camp is where I got most of my information, in fact. Surprisingly, a lot of the information I got was correct.
In one week, I went from the kid who didn’t even know what a “period” was, to a kid who not only knew where babies came from, but also how they got in there in the first place. I didn’t believe it, of course. I mean, who were they trying to kid?
Not MY mom and dad. Ewww.
The church camp sex vocabulary was interesting, too. “The man puts his THING into the girl’s THING, and THINGS come out of it and touch her THINGS, and makes a baby grow in the THING, and when it’s big enough, her THING pushes it out, like poop.”
The funny THING is, we understood what that meant. Sort of. Well, I knew how to poop, so I figured I would know how to have a baby when the time came.
And I did. Pushed ’em right out of my THING.
The next summer, I went back to Baptist Camp with friends, and I had a BLAST. Seriously, it was really fun. We had vespers about forty times a day, but other than that, it was great. Lanyards and wallets and swimming in the filthy lake water, goofy camp songs that I still remember, and boys.
Oh yes, there are always boys. And THINGS.
Flash forward, and there I am with my friend, and we’re taking our daughters to this same Baptist Camp. They were assigned the same cabin I’d been in. I walked inside, and the smell of the cabin hit my memory. . . it was the SAME SMELL. I looked at the graffiti all over the rafters. . . I recognized some of it.
It was difficult for me to leave her there, but I smiled as we drove away. I had a feeling that THINGS would be fine with my baby. And they were.
She learned to dive there.
I didn’t ask her about other THINGS.
