Life's lessons....

Open letter to my sons,

My darling boys, I can't believe how quickly you are growing.  It seems like just yesterday our home was filled with diapers and baby food.  Now it's ipods and laptops.  As you know, each stage of life comes with new lessons to be learned.  After much consideration, I feel it's time for me to teach you one such lesson.

Ok...  there is a machine to the left of our kitchen sink.  This machine is called a dishwasher.  Say it with me:
D I S H  W A S H E R.  Good.  This wondrous piece of technology can wash our dirty dishes with very little effort on our part. That said, there are a few things we humans must do.  First and foremost, we must put the aforementioned dirty dishes from the sink into the machine.  You see, when I bought each glass, plate, spoon, etc home, I cut it's tiny legs off.   This means nothing can walk itself to the dishwasher.  Luckily for us, our sink is in close proximity to our dishwasher.  This means very little movement on your part.  All you need to do is scrape any food remnants into the trash..again conveniently located near said sink and dishwasher (although as teenagers, you rarely leave anything behind on your plates!!).  After the plate has been scraped, load the dirty dishes and utensils into the dishwasher.  It's pretty simple to figure out where things get placed but if you have any doubts, don't hesitate to ask me.  Once the dishwasher is full (note: not 1/2 full, not overfull) please take the 32 seconds it takes to add dish soap (the cup is labeled inside the front door) AND turn it on (this is a very important step!!)  Voila...in an hour or so- clean dishes!

Now I don't want to overwhelm you with information but when the only light still on is the "clean" light, you can (hold on to your boxers) open the door and put the clean dishes back in their assigned homes!!  The cycle then begins again because I know there will already be dirty dishes in the sink.

I know!!  It's almost too much to grasp isn't it??   Sigh...it is my greatest joy as a parent to get to share these things with the 2 of you.  I am so blessed.

All My Love,
   mom
xoxox

Ya gotta have friends...

Lately I've been thinking a lot about friends, mine in particular.  I was thinking of what friends mean to me. I have some friends that have come and gone from my life, leaving me with a life lesson.  I have friends whom I laugh and giggle (and bitch) with at work.  Other friends have slowly faded away with no hard feelings, only lives that have gone in different directions to the point that we no longer have anything in common.  Then there are my old friends.  By old, I don't mean they are actually old (although most are older than me)...I mean the ones that I've had the longest.  As preteens we were brought together as we were uncertain, insecure middle schoolers (or for you M.O. alums...Upper El ).  We went through puberty and braces together, first crushes and first heartbreaks, difficult parents and Mr. Cobb.  Even as we branched off with friends from other "cliques" we always came back to where we knew were safe..each other.  It was really quite extraordinary to be raised by 4 or 5 sets of parents...all of whom were looking out for your well being, pulling for you to succeed, listening to your teenage woes, rolling their eyes at you, and parenting you just like your own folks did.

Life has certainly intervened since our time hanging out by my folks' pool or Friday nights on Lori's couches (eating Doritos and drinking Pepsi) watching scary movies or well...any of the other agonizingly normal (and fun!) things we used to do.  We've gone to college, joined the military, gotten married, had babies, had our hearts broken, changed careers, bought houses, and one of us even found our acting chops!  And yet, despite all of that, when we are lucky enough to get together again, it's as though not a day has passed.  We pick up where we left off like it was just yesterday that we were heading out to the Diner for cheese fries and gravy.  Our old stories still make us laugh and we enjoy hearing about the goings on in everyone's everyday lives.  Recently I was blessed to reconnect with one of these "old" and very dear friends.  It's amazing how much I miss her after seeing her just 2 weeks ago!  I find it nearly impossible to believe we lost touch for 19yrs.  We have much to catch up on and yet it feels like no time has passed.  We will not be letting another 2 decades go by without each other!

It's funny, when I talk to my boys about this special group of friends, I will say "I was 11 when I got Miss Nancy" or "do you know how long I've had Mr. Eric??"  My pals and I have asked each other "When DID we get Steve?" I think the reason I fall into that terminology is because I feel, truly, like I received each of them, much as one receives a gift.  They helped shape my views on the world, my views on what friendship means and in their love for me, I see the very best of myself reflected back to me.  In some divine intervention many decades ago, we were picked for each other and although we have "grown-up" lives now, we still, in some long-ago determined way, belong to each together.