11/21, A Very Good Day

It's funny but today, 11/21, is a very special day for me because three special souls were born this day, different years. It may not be my birthday but I celebrate that I am three times blessed on this date.

The first one to enter my life was Kathy. Happy Birthday my friend! When I think of you I still see that 14 year old face. The face that showed so much attitude with any bs, the plastic people, never trying to be anyone but yourself. The face that showed loved, kindness, humor, compassion.

Kathy and I met our first day of freshman year in high school. We sat together in home room as my last name starts with a "G" and Kathy's an "H" (well her maiden name, it's been a long time, now she's the Kathy M. who leaves me so many wonderful, loving, encouraging words in her comments to my blog, she gives me tremendous confidence to keep writing. When I read her words, I can almost hear her cheering me on).

Kathy, like me, was not a hippie, but we were so not the dress up disco girls of that era. We wore earth shoes, construction boots, jeans, whatever was comfortable. I think like me, Kathy considered wearing corduroy pants as being dressed up.

We had a dear friend we met in homeroom too, Laura, who we recently learned passed away last year. I had searched for Laura once the internet gave me the means to find people. On and off for years I searched and unfortunately I found her obituary last year. Broke my heart, I wish I had found her before. Kathy of course was as sad as me to hear and when we were talking about her Kathy asked a rhetorical question. How were we friends with Laura. Laura was one of the disco girls of that era. She was a tiny girl, I think shorter than me (I'm 5 foot) but Laura always wore super big heels so I'm not sure really how tall she was. And makeup. I was never a big make up person and Kathy I think even less so. To this day all I wear is lipstick and a little blush and I apply it once, when it wears off I don't reapply, it's just not my thing. But Laura wore red lipstick, I remember constantly telling her it was on her teeth and I wasn't busting her chops either, but she would fix it once or twice and then tell me to just leave her alone (in a nice way). She also applied her mascara and then took a safety pin and separated her lashes, took forever! (My friend Josephine too, that was her thing years ago, I'll have to ask her about that, she has three kids now...teenagers!...I kinda doubt she's using that safety pin anymore). But Laura, and she too was a mom, another sad part leaving behind a daughter and her husband, but I'll bet she was still using that safety pin or created a better tool somehow but was separating her eyelashes and wearing her red lipstick and high heels until the end. That was Laura and that's why Kathy and I were friends with her. She may have been so different from Kathy and I on the outside but on the inside she was just like us. Just real. Nothing plastic about Laura, Kathy or me. Laura in fact plucked my eyebrows for the first time, the pain was horrible and who knew the Brooke Shields thick eyebrow thing would be so big, I should have just left them alone! I gave in to peer pressure, but that wasn't Kathy, not then, not now. She's true to herself.

I loved the way Kathy printed and maybe she doesn't even know this but I copied hers and I've always tried to print like her and get compliments on my printing, but it's not half as nice as hers.

And if any of you have read Kathy's comments to my posts, you can tell she's my friend, loves and cares for me very much, but one of my practical jokes in high school ended with Kathy getting hurt pretty bad. Probably still suffers some pain to this day. Not my intention at all, I would never try to hurt Kathy and I know she knows that, and she knows I know she knows that. Should I push this...she knows, I know, that she knows...no I wont. But trust me we both know, no one was supposed to get hurt.

I had this brilliant idea to have a teacher come in to a class finding a student tied, gagged, blindfolded and probably some kind of note. There were a bunch of us involved, but I was the ringleader. Kathy was in on it, was chosen since she had the least amount of demerits and wouldn't give any of us up once she was found and could afford a few extra demerits. But we never got to the classroom. Instead of setting Kathy down in the classroom and then blindfolding, gagging and tying her up, the smart thing, we did it outside the building and had to lead Kathy into the building and then the classroom. Well Kathy fell, and forgive me again but I still have a horrible evil little smile on my face remembering that moment. When she fell, it was like a scary movie, where you open the closet and a body just falls out straight down. Kathy hurt her knee really really bad and when we took the gag off she was cursing up a storm, not at me, at the pain and to get her untied and get help. Now I'm not laughing cause I know this was the bad part of my prank, which could have been worse, as bad as it was. Kathy had to go to the hospital, again really messed up her knee because of me, but she forgave me, she knew I would never hurt her intentionally.

After that fiasco me and all the other girls headed to our classes, late. Not two minutes after sitting down every one started saying they smelled gas and then the principal came on the loudspeaker telling us to evacuate the building and head to the chapel and once there we were instructed to leave the premises right away that there was a gas leak in the science lab.

I had nothing to do with that although I was in the lab prior to what I refer to now as the "kidnapping fiasco".

The next day as I was in the hallway waiting for a class to start I was surrounded by the group of girls involved in the "kidnapping fiasco", all telling me not to mention we were in the lab, leave that part out of the story. They were telling me this because they knew the dean would ask me, I couldn't lie, I may have done stupid pranks and made some trouble, but I couldn't lie to a nun if caught. As they were coaching me I could see the dean heading right for me and she got me out of the group and sat me down in her office. I started crying right away saying "Sister I had nothing to do with the gas in the lab, I'll tell you everything, but I didn't turn on the gas". She believed me and with a straight face just wanted to talk about the kidnapping. I told her everything. Why I was in the lab and to the end of the story which ended with my friend being hurt. She was looking for a timeline of what had happened the day before. It turns out two of my classmates decided it would be funny to turn on all the gas jets in the science lab. Real funny huh. They were thrown out. I think I got demerits and detention, which I deserved and my kidnapping days were over.

Kathy left our high school not long after that but we still remained friends until she like so many of my other friends, got married, started a family and I was off with my single friends, we just were leading different lives, never forgetting each other and reconnecting once I calmed down and her kids got older. She was at my 40th birthday party and I know my family was so happy that they found her to invite her, knowing how much it would mean to me that she was there, and it did mean a lot. I love my friend Kathy. The first special soul born on 11/21.

The next was my Molly. My beautiful Yorkie and best friend. And as the name of my blog is "Molly Made Me Do It" I hope you can tell that it means she was an inspiration to me. She made me feel alive again after I had gone through some tough times. She kept me going and sometimes I think she's still somehow inspiring me from the other side, "Over the Rainbow Bridge".




And last but not least is my niece Gracie. Gracie is my cousin Chrissy's daughter and my Aunt Libby's granddaughter. She is also BFCF (Best Friends Cousins Forever) to my other niece Bella (they made up this term). They are cousins and buddies. And Gracie is a sweet girl who reminds me of her mom when she was little, she's a little Chrissy. But most important she's a loving little girl, to her mom and dad, her older brother Luke (who just doesn't understand yet how great his little sister is and will be for him when he's older), for her aunts and uncles, cousins, grandpa, for me too and especially her grandmother, Gara I think they call her, Luke started it, but I adore my Aunt Libby and Gracie does too, that makes her aces in my book. Happy Birthday my beautiful Gracie!!

(We'll have to get her to use the George Burns, Gracie Allen line, "say goodnight Gracie"!)