....... one is silver and the other gold.
I had just about the best Mother's Day surprise I could have asked for yesterday. One of my best friends from college was in the area and stopped by for a visit. Okay, it wasn't a *complete* surprise - she'd called me Thursday night to ask how close we were to the Boy Scout camp she would be at for the weekend with her son. Turns out they were maybe a half hour drive away. So I got to spend about 2 hours on Sunday afternoon catching up with her.
Wow. Time warp. This is the woman who was my Maid of Honor in my wedding. I was Matron of Honor in hers. We lived in the same dorm for 3 years - I met her when she moved into the room next door to mine when she was a freshman and I was a sophomore. She was my clown partner in the college's clown troupe that we both joined that year. We worked together at the campus' library. Spent countless hours hanging out in each other's rooms - late night study sessions, gab sessions, planning sessions for the various groups we were both part of.
Since we both belonged to several of the Christian groups on campus we also shared a large group of friends. I don't think a day went by in those 3 years that we didn't see each other - it was like having a sister (which for me, as an only child, was very cool).
Now, even though we live in separate states, we still share a bunch of things. Our sons are only a year apart (but they're both 1st year Webelos in Cub Scouts), our daughters the same age (both Daisies - little Girl Scouts). Both of us dealing with the educational issues of our sons - my oldest being autistic and hers in the process of figuring out what IEP/diagnosis fits best (most likely ADD, they think).
It's amazing after all these years the things I remember about her - she tells me casually that she's in charge of her daughter's Daisy troop.... and I just stare at her. Herding little kids never used to be her thing (either of ours, actually) *You're* in charge - of how many little girls? Sixteen, she tells me. Then she rolls her eyes. Ah, I see - another of those things us mothers get roped into for the sake of our kids. It was supposed to a shared thing, you see - only her co-leader's been "busy" lately. Mind you - I'm sure she's sensational at it - her organizational skills were always waaay better than mine. But it was cool to see that underneath the "mom" facade she's still the same person.
There's a "Rose is Rose" cartoon that my husband cut out and gave to me years back. It shows Rose looking through her photo albums, re-meeting herself at different ages, and all of them joining her on the couch to look at the pictures together. Then she gives them all a hug - and her husband finds her hugging herself and says "you look very together". That's kind of how yesterday made me feel....
