I'm weird about high school. Most people grow more nostalgic for it as time goes by. I grow less so. High school wasn't necessarily bad for me, but it wasn't necessarily great for me either. I remember even at the time thinking "this is what people remember as their best years? no thanks..." At the time, I didn't really expect that 10 years down the road I would still be BFFs with all of these people. That turned out to be mostly true. Except for Karin. Karin turned out to be one of those friends that you just keep finding your way back to, then wonder why you ever drifted off in the first place. In the past year Karin and I have actually grown closer as were planning our weddings six months apart. She nearly lived with me for a few days leading up to her own wedding, and I took a stinger in the tongue for her. (I shot her engagement portraits... at a cider mill with ninja bees... who stung me on the tip of my tongue).
I intentionally held off on including Karin in this project until she'd had some time to recover from what I call wedding madness... so she could enjoy the card and not have to file it away so she wouldn't forget which gift it came with, or who to send the thank you note to :o) Mostly I just wanted her to get some fun mail addressed to Mrs Gordon coz I'm 7 months into my marriage and seeing my new name on stuff still makes me grin!
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Letter #78 - John
I am simply in love with some of my friends. Not romantically, but still deeply in love. John is one of these friends. Just seeing his name in my contact list on my phone makes me smile. John also has the honour being my only true college friend. I have lots of friends from when I was in college, but of those the only ones that have lasted were ones born out of roommates and church connections. No random "oh we met at a party" or "we used to study in the same lounge" or anything like that... except John. We had one gloriously lame intro to teaching class together and it was almost instantly love. He is insane... exactly the brand of insane I admire, support and occasionally mirror. He is exactly the kind of guy I can call up and say "Bob Barker, this weekend, my house" and he shows up dressed the part (this actually happened). He shares my love of Bon Jovi, my amusement of the 80s, and my love of life. Then the bastard moved to New York. So I sent him a letter to remind him of how much I love him, and to tell him I miss him so he won't forget to visit the next time he's in town. Because I am simply in love with some of my friends, and John is one of them.
Letter #77 - Noreen
My old job was amazing. I'm pretty sure I've said that before, but it bears repeating. I loved my boss, I loved my job, even on the tough days. One of the biggest things I loved about my job was that I got to meet SO MANY cool people... one of whom was Noreen. Noreen is simply awesome and I decided to write her because I really miss getting to see her. She always had neat perspectives on things and I miss getting to chat with her and hear how she sees things.
Letter #76 - Nancy
There are occasionally people in my life who trade places with me in a way. Last summer I spent some time with my friend Nancy, soaking in her stories and advice about being a newlywed and starting out life with next to nothing... borrowing furniture, living in someone else's house and loving life amid the stress. she was mentoring me, trying to set me up for success in my new upcoming life adventure.
Cut to not even 6 months later and she's boarding a plane to Brazil with her family to begin 2-3 year expat assignment with her husband's company... a role I filled (as a child, not a spouse) nearly 2 decades ago. Turn around is fair play, so I have tried to keep in touch with her and give her my own stories and advice about moving into a foreign culture, where no one can speak the language yet, and you need help to even learn how to pay your bills or go grocery shopping!
Writing to Nancy brought back the newness of my own experiences, which is something that's usually very difficult to recall on my own. Rotterdam became so much a part of my own life and culture it can be hard to remember when it was strange and new and scary. I used my letter to be encouraging in an honest way. She and I can relate on a new level now, which just makes me appreciate our friendship even more!
Cut to not even 6 months later and she's boarding a plane to Brazil with her family to begin 2-3 year expat assignment with her husband's company... a role I filled (as a child, not a spouse) nearly 2 decades ago. Turn around is fair play, so I have tried to keep in touch with her and give her my own stories and advice about moving into a foreign culture, where no one can speak the language yet, and you need help to even learn how to pay your bills or go grocery shopping!
Writing to Nancy brought back the newness of my own experiences, which is something that's usually very difficult to recall on my own. Rotterdam became so much a part of my own life and culture it can be hard to remember when it was strange and new and scary. I used my letter to be encouraging in an honest way. She and I can relate on a new level now, which just makes me appreciate our friendship even more!
Letter #75 - Steffan
Sometimes in our lives, we all have pain, we all have sorrow. But if we are wise, we know that there's always tomorrow.
These words are a part of the very beginning of the story that wove Steffan into my life. His father was my grade four teacher. I've written about his dad before in this blog, but last year I got the opportunity to get to know Steffan as more than the toddler I met so many years ago!
My husband and I were traveling with my family last year around the holidays and stayed a night at Steffan's home with his family. It had been so long since I'd seen Sergio's kids, I wasn't sure what to expect. Turns out they're both awesome and that Steffan and I have similar movie *and* cereal tastes. Steffan was an incredible host (not a common trait among most guys his age in my experience) and spent all evening hanging out with us and chatting. There were many reasons I with that stay had been longer, and getting to know Steffan was one of those reasons. We've since connected on facebook, but it kept coming to me that he may just appreciate one of my notes, and so off I sent one. Since I'm so far behind on the blogging part of this project, he has already received his letter and I received an incredibly kind note back from him. I think we may actually start kickin' an old school style pen pal relationship, which I think is just awesome. Like father like son... I just love the Tirolese men! :o)
Letter #74 - Finian
I've always had a thing for blonds, or rather, blonds seem to have always had a thing for me. Many of my crushes were blonds, and most of my boyfriends were blond, and all of my marriage proposals were from blonds... one from a two year old, one from a three year old and one from my husband. Finian was the three year old. I think he's managed to get over the heartache of losing me to someone my own age though, and is more concerned with girls his own age now (he is quickly approaching teenagerdom). Even though wedded bliss wasn't in the cards for us, Finn will always hold a special place in my heart. In fact, this summer he gets to be my 'camp son' for a week and I'm thrilled to have the chance to hang out with him! Finn is one of those kids who has a good heart but often seems to just get into complex and unfair life situations. The past several months we have been able to grow our friendship a bit more, and I have forged an unexpected, yet lovely relationship with his mother. I sent him a letter because I thought it might send a deeper message of caring than an FB post on his wall, and I hope that message carries through. I am proud of his values but I think he is entering an age where he will face possibly even cruel scrutiny for standing by those values. High school can be incredibly harsh for kids who are unique, and I hope I can become an extra branch in his support system to help him flourish into the incredible guy he's already becoming.
Friday, April 1, 2011
Letter #73 - Aunt Pam
I've mentioned that I'm not always the best granddaugher. I'm also not always the best niece. My aunts on my mum's side of the family got my grandma's writing gene. They send cards at least monthly (often times more frequently than that) they send little gifts with each holiday, they drop things off for me that they were getting rid of and thought I may want, or things they just happened to see out somewhere that they picked up... they really are great at keeping in touch and letting me know how much they love me and that they think of me often. I am not good at returning the favour. I almost always get a thank you note in the mail for gifts or unexpected hand me downs, but beyond that I'm not usually good at just popping a note in the mail to say hi. Today I decided to work on that. So Aunt Pam gets letter #73.
Aunt Pam is sister #2 of 5 in my mum's family. She loves dogs and used to take my cousin and I shopping all the time. She is an incredible bargain shopper and would get us the best deals on really great clothes, jewelry and makeup. She would always be giving us these goody bags of freebies she would get places, and shared her fine jewelry collection with us. Her husband passed away a few years ago and life changed dramatically. As a result, I've been even worse at keeping in touch with her, something I feel badly about but haven't really known how to remedy very well.
I sent her a note today pretty much just to say hi. I included some photos of our kitties as she often sends us treats for them, and a photo of my husband and I from our honeymoon, since she hasn't gotten to see any of those photos yet. I really hope the letter catches her on a good day, and brings a smile to her face to know I've been thinking about her. The anniversary of my Uncle's death is coming up soon, so I know that's weighing on her. It has been extremely difficult on her coming to terms with losing him (understandably so!)
Aunt Pam is sister #2 of 5 in my mum's family. She loves dogs and used to take my cousin and I shopping all the time. She is an incredible bargain shopper and would get us the best deals on really great clothes, jewelry and makeup. She would always be giving us these goody bags of freebies she would get places, and shared her fine jewelry collection with us. Her husband passed away a few years ago and life changed dramatically. As a result, I've been even worse at keeping in touch with her, something I feel badly about but haven't really known how to remedy very well.
I sent her a note today pretty much just to say hi. I included some photos of our kitties as she often sends us treats for them, and a photo of my husband and I from our honeymoon, since she hasn't gotten to see any of those photos yet. I really hope the letter catches her on a good day, and brings a smile to her face to know I've been thinking about her. The anniversary of my Uncle's death is coming up soon, so I know that's weighing on her. It has been extremely difficult on her coming to terms with losing him (understandably so!)
Letter #72 - Matt
I am not a polygamist and yet I have two husbands. I have the man I married and live with, and I have Matt. Matt is my "camp husband"... in fact my legal husband is the one who dubbed him such, and almost formally signs me over to Matt when he drops me off at camp (he usually can't stay for the whole week).
Matt is responsible for my official introduction to my husband because the summer we met, Matt was a little starstruck by my husband and insisted I be the one to ask him to come hang out with us for the afternoon. As a result there was endless laughter, and my husband (to be) asked for my number in the walmart parking lot (you just can't make this stuff up)
I created and now run a huge photo program at our church family camp every summer. I started it out of sheer boredom one year, and it has turned into a staple component and significant fundraiser, it's pretty awesome. Matt has been with me since about year 2 of this and the amount of time we spend together at camp, it's no wonder he's been dubbed my camp husband :o)
Matt is an incredible guy, I adore him. He's dependable, creative, silly (which is important at 3AM), and a super sweetheart. He is also a spiritual rock for me, even if he doesn't know it. His faith and unwavering dedication to his faith inspire me constantly. His willingness to stay up until all hours of the night, even if his work is done, just to keep me from going crazy, is beyond appreciated. His ability to take the brunt of our last day activities so I can sleep in a little (I still usually send him to bed at some point before me on our last night) is saintly. The fact that even though he moved out of state after our first year together at camp, he still saves his vacation time and pays all that extra money in travel expenses to be there as part of my team is simply awesome. In fact, he did the same to spend his birthday with us last fall to celebrate our wedding.
About this time every year I start to get excited about camp, thinking up new ways of hopefully letting us get more sleep, and looking forward to more late-night silliness with Matt (such as roasting marshmallows over votive candles, or watching Sister Act 2 for the millionth time, or covering almost every square inch of visible skin in washable markers...) Usually this eagerness results in increased texting and facebooking, but this year I decided to also send him a letter. Writing him made me ever more excited for camp to come, because this year we will have a bit larger team, and I'm hoping my real husband will be there with us as well...
Matty I love you to bits... thank you for everything you do to support me, and to support our amazing squad, and just for generally being AMAZING. Can't wait to see you in a few months!!!
Matt is responsible for my official introduction to my husband because the summer we met, Matt was a little starstruck by my husband and insisted I be the one to ask him to come hang out with us for the afternoon. As a result there was endless laughter, and my husband (to be) asked for my number in the walmart parking lot (you just can't make this stuff up)
I created and now run a huge photo program at our church family camp every summer. I started it out of sheer boredom one year, and it has turned into a staple component and significant fundraiser, it's pretty awesome. Matt has been with me since about year 2 of this and the amount of time we spend together at camp, it's no wonder he's been dubbed my camp husband :o)
Matt is an incredible guy, I adore him. He's dependable, creative, silly (which is important at 3AM), and a super sweetheart. He is also a spiritual rock for me, even if he doesn't know it. His faith and unwavering dedication to his faith inspire me constantly. His willingness to stay up until all hours of the night, even if his work is done, just to keep me from going crazy, is beyond appreciated. His ability to take the brunt of our last day activities so I can sleep in a little (I still usually send him to bed at some point before me on our last night) is saintly. The fact that even though he moved out of state after our first year together at camp, he still saves his vacation time and pays all that extra money in travel expenses to be there as part of my team is simply awesome. In fact, he did the same to spend his birthday with us last fall to celebrate our wedding.
About this time every year I start to get excited about camp, thinking up new ways of hopefully letting us get more sleep, and looking forward to more late-night silliness with Matt (such as roasting marshmallows over votive candles, or watching Sister Act 2 for the millionth time, or covering almost every square inch of visible skin in washable markers...) Usually this eagerness results in increased texting and facebooking, but this year I decided to also send him a letter. Writing him made me ever more excited for camp to come, because this year we will have a bit larger team, and I'm hoping my real husband will be there with us as well...
Matty I love you to bits... thank you for everything you do to support me, and to support our amazing squad, and just for generally being AMAZING. Can't wait to see you in a few months!!!
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