Letter #87 - Erin

I've moved.  A lot.  This means I've lived a lot of places, and had a lot of neighbours and a lot of friends.  Erin is the first neighbour that I have any memories of, and also one of my first friends that I can remember.  I turned 4 the week my family moved to Independence Missouri (my birthday has been almost exclusively spent mid-move or at a church camp) and Erin lived across the street.  During our time there we would spend our days playing in each others' yards, creating dance and gymnastics routines in her basement, climbing trees at my house, or coming up with craft projects.  We had countless sleepovers which always involved makeovers and movies and lots and lots of snacks and giggling.  As we grew older and the trips back to Missouri became less and less frequent, we got worse at keeping tabs on each other.  That never seemed to matter when we came face to face though and we would spend what little time we had together trying to catch up on jobs, classes, boys and music... more giggling, more dreaming, and lots of reminiscing.

Last year I got to spend some more time with Erin and I was so excited to learn that she had just gotten engaged.  More giggling and girly stuff as we talked about my upcoming wedding and ideas for hers... more boys... more giggling.  When the invitation to her wedding arrived I was so sad to have to RSVP no.  Between a severe lack of finances, and having my masters class that weekend it just wasn't possible.  I found myself thinking about her all week leading up to her big day, and the day of my mind kept wandering and wondering where she was at that point in the day, and what she was doing, and whether she was married yet... I wished so badly I could have been there.  So instead, I wrote her a long letter.  It got a bit mushy I will admit but come on... one of my earliest childhood friends got married just 9 months (to the day!) after me... I was bound to get sentimental!

Her younger sister is getting married in a month as well, and I unfortunately (for the same reasons) can't attend hers either... but I am hopeful that maybe in a year or so the world will have changed in such a way that maybe our paths can cross again and there will be more movies, more makeovers, and more giggling.

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)