Chance Reunion

This Christmas was chaotic, as is any with my family, but I did get one huge surprise out of it. Christmas Eve we always spend at my maternal grandmothers, but this year, we met during the day. My cousin is a police office and unfortunately since he is the rookie, had to work. So, we met to accommodate his schedule. Shortly after we had cleaned the dishes and unwrapped the presents, it was time for me to head out. I had promised my best friend from high school that I would come and visit her.

It had been approximately four to five years since I last saw her and felt terrible about that. There are very few memories of my childhood that don't contain her. I mean really, you all have heard the tales of Mere and Darcy. We were riots if I say so myself. Anywho. As I called her to let her know that I was on my way, and to prepare, she informed me that another crazy cat would be joining us. Jazzy. I had not seen Jazzy since graduation, and that is no lie. I was so excited.

When I got there, I hugged her parents' necks and we all sat and chatted while waiting on Jazzy's arrival. Then, Darcy informed me that she had had surgery where they had to deflate her lung. She then preceded to tell me that it was no big deal. Um, any procedure where it is necessary that the deflate the thing that makes you breathe and stay alive, is a big deal. Geez.

Moving on. When Jazzy got there, we tried to think of where we wanted to go or what we wanted to do. I don't know who thought of it first, but it was genius. We knew, just knew, that another friend of ours was in town for the holidays and we had to see her. So, we plied in Darcy's car and off we went to find Julie. As we pulled into her driveway, we were all so worried about whether or not she would (1) remember us and (2) want to see us. The two nut heads that I was with started getting all nervous, but I made them stand on the porch with me as we rung the door bell. Her father answered the door and immediately brought us into the living room. "I remember your faces very well, but the names, now you are going to have to help me on that one."

One by one, we reintroduced ourselves. He couldn't believe it. Then down the stairs came Julie's little sister, Michelle, who hung out with us a lot as no one in her year was cool. (Ha, that's right, we were considered the cool kids). Then Julie's older brother came in, Tyler, he hugged Darcy and Jazzy, and then tried to shake my hand and introduced himself. "Dude, we use to work in the office together," were my thoughts, but before I could say anything, he remembered. "Mere!"

Finally, we heard more steps coming down the stairs, JULIE!!! As she came in the room, she had to do a double take. She later told us that she almost started to cry, that she couldn't believe it. It was like magic was in the air. We later found out that she was leaving the next morning to fly back to Utah. Lucky.

We then decided to head over to our old stomping grounds and had dinner in Fayetteville, Applebees to be exact. We just started talking about the past and reminiscing about all the crazy stuff we did in school, all the stupid boys that we dated. We talked about what we are doing now and how much things have changed since we left. It was a terrific night. We laughed harder than I think anyone of us had in a while. We remembered things that I haven't thought about since I left that school.

When I got home that night, I told my mother that I had an amazing time, truly amazing. I forgot about what great times there were in high school. It seems that we tend to only focus on the bad, and forget the good. Well, that night, I got a big dose of it!

As we were saying our goodbyes, we realized that we all have known one another for close to fifteen years, and the fact that we hadn't seen one another for close to seven. Unacceptable ladies! This shall not happen again. We were talking at dinner about planning a skiing trip out to see Julie after the new year. Sign me up!