Flowers and Friends

I am a day or two behind here, but please still consider this post to be a Taraday celebration.

First things first...I just got some flowers and here they are sitting on my desk!One of my little storytime people gave them to me this morning. The mom said she hoped I had a garden I could put them in. Technically I do have a garden. I just neglect it quite a bit. Still I can always stick these in the ground and see what happens. For now they are looking and smelling purty on my desk.

Second, reading Tara's "First Best Friend" post made me nostalgic. Now I want to reminisce about my first best friend. NT was my across the street neighbor. She had an older brother, who I had a crush on at various times growing up, and an older sister, who was sort of a hippie chick. She eventually had a daughter and named her Sunshine, okay? Anyway, I met NT when I was about three...she was a year older and several years wiser. It always seemed like she knew everything about everything! She was so daring, especially compared to me...I was always the one afraid of getting caught or hurt or in some sort of terrible trouble :-) For years, NT, me and my younger sister were inseparable pals. NT was the leader and my sister and I were her loyal followers. Her parents were that brand that seems to be somewhat particular to growing up in the 70's...very, like, swinging or something. Not too terribly attentive. NT was allowed to spend as much time as she wanted at our house, basically. We pretended we were all real sisters...oddly, I was often the one called out on it. My sister and NT had more similar coloring and somehow looked more like genuine siblings. Although NT and I stayed friends throughout our school careers, by the time we even hit Jr High we were not quite as close. Her maturity and daredevil behavior began to seem less...harmless, shall we say, once we reached a certain age. She and I began hanging out with pretty different crowds, but remained friends. By high school the ties were even more tenuous, but still existed for us. We both ended up getting married really young. I didn't have an actual wedding wedding, but she did and my sister and I were both bridesmaids. Later, she and her family moved...first to Arizona, then Colorado. Not so far, but with young families we basically didn't see each other or even talk all that often. It has actually been quite a while since we spoke. I know she is divorced and living in Colorado. Since her daughter and son are in the age range of my oldest sons, they are grown...but that is really about all I know. It is funny how incredibly clearly I can picture her face as a young girl. At one time, I probably knew her better than I knew myself. But that was a long time ago.