a lifetime in a day......

On Sunday evening, the phone rang and my childhood friend Stephanie asked me what I would be doing around 10 am on Monday. "uhhhhh.......why, do you need something?".....Yep, she was flying into Houston Hobby and needed a ride to College Station. It seems her oldest son Lucas and his girlfriend Kristen were needing some parental help with some living arrangements so she was booked on a Monday morning flight.

I picked her up and with a stop at my house to get the camera and a stop at Whataburger (she saw the orange & white striped roof and started moaning......I'm NOT kidding) we headed to College Station. Before the day was over, we went by her childhood home, my childhood home (actually 3 of them....my father was at A&M getting his Masters and PhD and we were renters for awhile during my first years there) then reunited with another friend of ours from the past...Cindy....who after living in Sugarland for 26 years moved back to College Station last year.

Stephanie is a cryer. I am not. She cried several times .........well if several = 5 to 7, she cried MORE than several times. She cried when the plane was landing in Houston, when we were on the freeway, when she saw my house........you get the point. Very sentimental. Very.

Here she is crying in front of her old house.....trying to call her Mom.....so they could cry together.



This was taken by the tree in Stephanie's old front yard. She is not crying here........but I think if you look closely you will see her tear ducts filling up. (just kidding S....I'm just jealous I don't cry.)

My sweetest, favorite moment of the day was walking down to the creek that ran behind my house. I lived in this particular house from about 4th grade through 9th grade. I spent hours down by this creek. Making mud pies, playing in the shallow water, making up my life's future. Hours and hours. I should have been afraid of snakes.....but for some reason I wasn't. I just loved the solitude.......just me and the mud and my thoughts. It's a pretty steep drop down there and this isn't the greatest photo but I had to try to capture it. Just know that this creek is a magical place. Every child should have a place like this. That's my shadow up on the banks.

Cindy, Stephanie and I are all 51....turning that age from November 5 to December 25...so within 6 weeks of each other. But let me assure you that when the 3 of us were together yesterday in our childhood hometown.......we were no more mature than 13 year old girls. We were talking about old crushes within minutes of reuniting. Just seeing the mall conjured up images of us walking the 2 miles there barefoot with a comb in our back pocket. Stephanie's memory is unbelievable. She can recall vivid details......of even my childhood. So I love hearing her tell me things that took place that I have long forgotten.

Anyway......I went from 51 back to 7 and all the years forward in a day. Needless to say I was worn out last night.