Defining the Word: Friend

Friendology

Study of friends and the power of friendships. The bond shared between two or more people. The understanding of friendship and how it is used in today's society. The worlds understanding of true friendship.

These girls have been pals, some besties, since their middle school years. They study together, they laugh together, they talk extremely loud together-- friends!  They have years before they have to think about separation.  And, when they do, I bet it'll be hard. 

This group of best pals, well, they're a whole different story. They are about to separate. Spread wings. While most of this close knit group is headed to Mizzou together, a few others are the brave souls, ready to branch off on their own for new adventures. Make new friends. Which sounds easy, but is it?  M is one of those brave souls.  M and her bestie (the other beauty clad in yellow) have been "sisters of the heart" for so long I can't see one without the other. They have lived and laughed together...even tested their parents' patience a time or two, together.  Growing up together as friends. 

While I sit outside enjoying the cool summer air (being eaten by mosquitoes) I can't help but think about how I too, like M, have to be that brave soul, leaving behind my school friends to spread my wings. I am totally excited about my new venture at work.  I feel fortunate to get the opportunity.  I spend my evenings building skill and knowledge...still old friends are hard to leave.  Old friends know you, you trust them, they get you, you aren't afraid to ask them questions. You know how to have after work fun together--Christmas karaoke and game night (what happens at game night stays at game night). How to make each other laugh-- at work and after work. The girl friend thing! We've all shed our separation tears, boxed up the old place, unboxed at the new place... I've cleaned the old place with new faces, to make the old feel fresh and new. The old place is my new place.  Still. Somehow, there is a comfort in the "old". Knowing how to finish each others sentences. How to complete a task without having to ask for assistance.  There's a forgotten unfamiliar to starting over.  I guess because the "old" had it: friendology!  

So what do girls do when they are about to embark on new adventures?  They spend as much time as they can with the old friends, so never to forget that feeling of comfortable. The trucks are rolling, walls are coming down and going up, but through all the boxes and all the construction we all know...friends never stop being friends.  

So girls, here's to us all. Here's to our new beginnings and our memories of the days. Here's to always being friends!

Turning Into A Bear

I don't know if I can actually constitute myself and King Ralph as being held hostage, since we signed up and attended on our own free will...well it was kind of required: SOAR, aka MSU Orientation.  However folks, when you are told to attend informational meetings from 10am-8pm... let's just call it what it it felt like--hostage! 

Hostage in an ice box. Seriously I think tuition could be reduced by 15% if they cranked the A/C up in the theater alone.  I had arms and legs that looked like a chicken just plucked, and my feet were a couple of blocks of ice.  Hey while we are talking feet... once you have spent 4 hours listening to topic talks about homesickness, student alcohol consumption and smoking pot in your dorm room by filtering it through a toilet paper tube stuffed with dryer sheets... well friends you start staring at the floor. Then you notice people's feet, like the gal next to me who had two full toes and three half toes. And, the two full toes where exactly the ones she needed to wear flip flops successfully.  Then you find yourself, at least King Ralph and I did, wanting to stand up and scream when the fifth person asked the same dumb question about how the Health Center functioned.  Listening ears people, turn them on.  King Ralph was losing it by 6pm, when he started showing me all the tools that make up his Swiss Army knife. (For the record the tooth pick scares me.)  Unlike the mother who sat next to me, and had an hour nap with her bobble head...I stayed awake for every minute of every topic--boring and informational.  

By 830pm we finally made it to the Holiday Inn, where I promptly redeemed by free drink coupon for a glass of white wine, paired with a basket of complimentary popcorn and my bag of trail mix.  Aaaaaahhhh!  Freedom.  The joy of not listening to yet another college topic talk. Then we caught a few z's and did it all again the next day. Donated a few green backs to the bookstore for some Bear wear and hit the road home.

You know what? It was so worth every minute of information overload to see M excited about the choice she made to grow and develope!

To that we all say: Go Bears!

Or.

Maybe we say: Missouri State University here's my wallet, take it all.    

Hey Keeper Where Ya Been?

Keeper: Hey Jodi where ya been?

J: Inside a cardboard box!

Keeper: Really, a cardboard box?

J: Well not actually, I am speaking in figurative term. You see since May I have been packing boxes for the move from school.

Keeper: School? Move?

J: Ya, you know the elementary school has closed up shop and is moving to a new location, with a new name. The new school is absolutely bee-u-tee-ful!

Keeper: So you are going to the new school?

J: Nope I am staying at the old homestead, as it transitions back to into a middle school, after twenty plus years. I am taking a new position.

Keeper: Really, how exciting!

J: I am excited. I have been training, lots. Training so much my new books I bought to read this summer are on the shelf collecting dust.

Keeper: Maybe you can read them on vacation?

J: Yes! That sounds like a plan. Reading under a canopy of trees and singing birds.

Keeper: You taking the house on wheels for that vacation?

J: Yep. King Ralph thought for a minute about not doing so, then the girls said to him "Dad, noooooo! being in the camper is what makes us a family."

Keeper: Wow, that is something.

J: I know, it is like when we go in the camper and take squat in the middle of nature so remote that there is no cell service, no lap tops, no TV....  We connect, like the family that we are. We laugh. We play board games. We play cards. We hike and hike and hike. I am about as excited for vacation as I am for my job.

Keeper: Not to change the subject but what about the BWFs?

J: Oh I know, we cried when our placements were announced. It is hard leaving old friends.

Keeper: You can make new friends.

J: I know...make new friends but keep the old.

Keeper: You're getting all old school Girl Scout leader on me there.

J: LOL

J: Hey I don't mean to end our little conversation, but I have to smell cardboard and packing tape again tomorrow morning...and Friday...and at the old homestead, turned new homestead on Monday. A girl needs her rest to lift boxes and ripe packing tape.

Keeper: Night. Hey, don't stay away so long.

J: Ok. I promise!

(If I never smell the scent of fresh cardboard boxes or hear the sound of packing tape ripping I will live happily ever after!)