40 things I love about "L"!

I have done something TERRIBLE. I forgot/neglected/let it pass by my good friend "L"'s big 4-0 birthday. Argh. Something must be done. There is NO REASON for me to miss it either, as it occurs every year on the same day, decade after decade....on April 15. Now, who can forget that? (And cheers, too, to you if you share this birthday, along with my pal "E"!). This doesn't make up for it, but nonetheless, I will share with you a few memories I've shared with "L".

Keep in mind that L has 2 adult children and lives in Northern California. We've seen each other once in the last - oh, can it be...15 years? We keep up with emails and occasional letters. We both love Jesus and seek to do his will in our lives. For the most part, we've grown up an put foolish ways behind us....

So, here is a tribute to my good friend L.....
remember when....
1. We dressed up in full cowboy regalia and went to the mall on a Friday night? You even wore a cowboy hat!
2.We laughed so hard that "we weren't alright" and had to shuffle through Military Circle. We were in what, 10th grade when we did this? What possessed us to do this? I dunno!
3. Remember those two guys who worked at Kinney's shoes that we'd go up and see (we were such "jail-bait" - I think we were 15/16!)...one looked like that guy on 'Emergency!'
4. I remember sitting in your mother's spotless living room waiting for you to finish your 30 minutes of piano practice. Debussy...and then you'd start playing Journey ("Open Arms"?) and your mother would come in and start hollering at you to play Schubert or something....
5. Gamma Girls
6. Rhema Lake
7. The kids we'd hang out with every time we'd go camping in Greenville...remember Noel & that girl who was deaf? She taught us sign language...
8. Bike rides from 1212 Eagle Eagle Avenue to 2149 Jeffrey Drive, and back
9. What about the time you were talking on the phone to your boyfriend and I colored your legs with green marker to look like a frog? Only afterwards did I realize that it was permanent! Boy, were your parents mad! (I have GOT to find that picture. That is one I need to send to your girls!!)
10.-12. Boys
13. Ward's Corner : Flippers
14. Braces
15. Young Life
16. youth group
17. Triple-R Ranch
18. Rolling our eyes and making gagging faces in the back seat of your mom's car when she drove us to school listening to WYFI...and now we both know the True Value of those hymns and praises to God!!! Folly of youth!
19. Notes between classes (which I still have on the top shelf of my closet....I;ll publish them in my memoirs. Posthumously, of course.) ....remember "WOTAS" (well, on to another subject)?
20. the Butler Building at lunch
21. Alice & Yvette
22. "Freddie"
23. Freddy & Andy
24. Matt & Jeff
25 - 29. The teachers at NCHS: Stultzman, Henshaw, Baxter, Janosik, Lazzenby (all spelled incorrectly on purpose!) I think one or the other of us got in trouble in their classes...
30. Putting stones warmed by the campfire into our sleeping bags to stay warm in that little tiny camper at Rhema
31. The Jolleys....their pillows....
32. Lake Gaston
33. TAB
34. Getting paid $20 to wash windows with newspaper & Windex. No streaks allowed!
35. cutting the sleeves off 17th Street t-shirts - a la Bruce Springsteen - and realizing afterwards that you were supposed to use short sleeved shirts b/c the long sleeved ones cost $5 more! Duh!
36. Hours upon hours loitering at White Tower playing Ms. Pac Man...
37. (I was secretly horrified that you stole Lesly's silver dollar collection to finance a few days of electronic gamery!)
38. sleepovers
39. sneaking out at night [if my girls even THINK about doing this we'll move so far into the Alaskan backcountry the'll have grizzlies for watchdogs, right, Daddyo?]
And...
40...being such great friends for over 25 years, long-distance, separate lives...see you in Heaven, if I don't see you again here on Earth!!

Love you, "L"!