Senior Cut Day 1991

We were warned, our parents were warned. If we even tried to cut on "Senior Cut Day" there would be severe consequences.

Pah!

My friend J and I convinced our mothers' to write notes. I had a lot of badgering to do but J didn't. Where did we decide to spend our Senior Cut Day? The beach? A pool? The mall? No silly, with our boyfriends...at their private all boys school.

This was before everyone and their little high school kids had cell phones so the timing had to be exactly right. This school was not in the best of neighborhoods and two HS girls standing outside this school would not be a safe thing. J had a car and she drove us to the school. We made it there with no problems and we even snuck inside with no adults seeing us. We were ushered to the Yearbook Room as it was the room furthest away from any adults that might be passing by.

One small problem.

There was Mass in the chapel today and everyone had to attend. This also meant that adults would just be looking for boys trying to get out of Mass. The Yearbook Room had suddenly become one of the worst places to be. Luckily, the Yearbook Room was next to the Mother's Guild Room. There were tons of boxes and shelves for holiday decorations and all matter of motherly guild-y stuff. So the boys hid us behind boxes on shelves. For some reason, we brought books. I don't remember why. I guess it was for when our guys were in class and we had nothing better to do. So we were comfortably arranged on the shelves, books available and Diet Cokes in our hands.
For awhile all was quiet as the boys were at Mass. Then, we heard it. Footsteps coming through the Yearbook Room. J and I looked at each other and froze. We barely breathed as we saw shoes and pant legs enter the Mother's Guild Room. The shoes and pants walked past the shelves, turned and went out the door...

then. shut. out. the. light.

We breathed a sigh of relief when we heard the shoes retreat down the stairs. We just sat there...in the dark...in the all boys school....

After about an hour, our boys came back and rescued us from our hiding places. The rest of the day was spent as honored guests. Boys bringing us lunch, snacks or just coming by to say hi. Eventually, when 8th period rolled around, we even attend a class...in the all boys school...during senior cut day. The teacher was cool and assumed we were there just at that moment, not all day.

And

We got away with it. Their school never caught us, our school never caught us. It went down as one of the best capers in our short history. We still revel in it.

All Good Things Must Come to...

a new beginning.

We were at a bbq last night mainly for my football team but there were other suspects there. The bbq was at my friend K's house...well not really HER house. She has been a Nanny for the same family for 10 years and this year her charge is going off to college. The house K has been living in is a gorgeous place downtown. It has been the site for MANY classic parties since I have known her. Now though, since her charge is off to college and K just finished up her Masters, things they are a changin'. As we walked out of the house last night, she said, "This very well might be the last time you see this place." It was kind of sad but at the same time, b/c is really is time for K to move on, it was ok.

Right now, K is not sure where she is moving to, what her next job will be (she was also a teacher) and even if she'll stay in Philly. As scary as that sounds, she sounds totally fine with it. It's like she was ready for the change and what comes, comes.

The thing is, she did ask me if I was going to take over the football team. I said no. With that, I think it is truly over. I don't mean just football. Playing held some of us together, otherwise our paths would not have crossed. So this final bbq meant that there are proabably some people that I will not see again for a very long time or maybe ever. It made me realize that for the past 8 years, this is where most of my/our friendships/social gatherings stemmed. Where do we go from here? It feels a little like being single and knowing you are not going to go to bars to meet people worth dating. Many people in our situation have kids, so that is how you end up meeting people. That is not the case with us. We'll actually have to rely on our own personalities (egads) to break the ice.

So, how do a couple 35 year old DINK's go about making new friends? This is a change that we have seen coming for awhile but never really thought about much. Looks like we better or P and I will have to start spending more quality time together, egads indeed.

Being the One Without Kids Part 2

A little while back I wrote a post about how I was getting used to being the one with out kids. Today, I am not feeling that. For the past two evenings, I have spent dinner with 2 seperate groups of friends (high school and bookclub) and 95% of the talk was about their kids. Last night, I actually wanted to cry because all I could do was sit there and listen about camp, summer scheduling, strollers, poop, music lessons and I don't know what else. The thing is, I do understand, really I do. Kids are a HUGE part of their life and when you get together with friends, isn't that what you talk about, your life? It was just so frustrating that anything that goes on with me, wasn't relatable to them at all and it's not like I lead a very exciting life. I get this feeling that anyone with kids just sees me as...less or a 'before kids' version of friend. I don't have kids so my life must not be as difficult, I don't have kids so I must have all this free time to dance around naked or something more frivilous. Maybe it is all just in my head. Maybe I am just feeling sorry for myself. I don't know.

I do know, I miss having meaningful book discussions at my bookclub, I miss having my friends talking about things other than their kids. I am jealous of that new bond my friends seemed to have formed with each other, that Mommy-bond. I can't compete and I am not sure what to do about it.

Sorry for the bit of a downer post but I really felt like bursting into tears last night in the middle of dinner. I spent some time trying to figure out if I got a bad batch of Prozac or I was really just upset.

Also, for the record, I love reading blogs about your families and I do truly love my friends with kids.

Pink Flowering Trees

That is what I looked up when trying to find the exact name of these trees. They are some sort of species of cherry tree but in high school we called these "Bitch Trees." It was our mascot if you will to our "Bitch Club" which met under these trees, after school, before play practice began. I do not for the life of me remember why we chose that name. It wasn't even a club really, just our tight knit group of 9 friends.

We all did the play because it meant being able to hang out together during the weekdays after school without parents. Play practice didn't start until 5:30pm so we would maybe do homework, gab about our guy friends (who we secretly or not so secretly want to be our boyfriends) and basically hash out life as teenagers in the Philly burbs. We loved these trees and the blooming pink flowers were a sign of warmer weather and summer. Every year I still call or email my friend A and say "The Bitch trees are blooming!"

I have scads of notes and letters from high school days, folded into footballs and odd squares, passed 'secretly' in the hall or in class referencing these trees. I have been toying with the idea of scanning them and posting one now and again. We cry with laughter when we read them as a group. There are so many silly inside jokes though that I am not sure they would provide that much amusement other than to us. I guess since this is MY blog I can do what I want. Maybe this weekend if the weather turns nasty as it is supposed to, I'll see what I can go about that whole scanning thing.

By the way, if you think I am kidding about obscure inside jokes all I have to say is, there are drawings of flying sock puppets involved and guys named Wanda that are fishes. Stay tuned.

Meeting the Boyfriend

In about an hour I am supposed to go over to the bar across the street to meet my friend for a beer for her birthday. I will get to meet her new boyfriend who, it seems has been treating her much better than her last one. The last one was a shiftless, lazy, jackass. I knew he was a shiftless, lazy, jackass at the time but she was so happy with him most of the time, I don't think me saying, "He's going to drain you of your happiness and self worth in about six months." would go over too well.

We have been friends for about 2 years now so this was the only guy I knew that she dated. I do know that she falls hard and fast so meeting this one worries me. What if I get that s,l, j vibe from him? Do I say anything to her? Should I threaten him with bodily harm? (Ok, I know the answer to that one.) This is not high school or dating in your 20's. In my opinion, there should be no time wasted with losers.

On the other hand, I am not exactly on familiar turf, I've been married for 5 years. I don't know what it's like out there currently. From the descriptions, it's not pretty. I just don't like seeing a friend cling to a bit of flotsom just because it's there. I'm brutal when it comes to this subject because I did date one complete loser and one abuser. I know the signs and I so don't want to deal with you if you fall into one of those catagories and are anywhere near someone I care about. I think you should be ripped out of the dating circut like a child caught peeing in the pool and corraled in like, Camden or something. Then again, as I said, I might not have room for judgement since I am not in that pool anymore.

What I will probably do it give this guy the evil eye a little bit (which won't be difficult considering my left eye has given to twitching today) and see how thoughtful he is. You know, like if he like's to buy his girlfriend's friends beers. He might be ok.