We'll always have that trampoline between our houses

This week's Friendship Friday post is about A.K..

I first met A.K. about a week after I moved to NJ. She (and her adorable baby girl, who was 5 months old at the time) sat down right next to me at Friday night mincha minyan to introduce herself. I probably came off as a bit standoffish as I try not to talk during services. Then it turned out that we were having dinner at the same house. A few weeks later, we invited her and her husband and baby to Shabbos dinner at our house. I think they stayed until about 11:00, as we had such a nice time talking and getting to know one another. We mainly saw each other at shul when we weren't having meals together. We also had some friends in common. Our friendship was instantly comfortable, which is something I appreciated.

We invited A.K. and her husband over to play board games several times. We had similar taste in games and had a lot of fun learning more about each other that way. In early February of 2008, we found out that they would be moving next door to us. We were so excited to have neighbors that we were actually friends with. After they officially moved in April, we became even closer with them. We'd get together more often and we even hosted a garage sale one hot summer weekend. Sometimes we'd take turns watching each others' kids so the other one could get things done. We used to joke that we needed a trampoline between our houses so that we could put the kids out the window and they could bounce into the window of the other house. The other nice thing was being able to walk to and from shul together. It was a long walk, so it was nice to have the company. We had meals together more often, which was very nice. We also got together in the summer afternoons to go to the park or hang out at each others' houses. The year or so that we were next door neighbors brought us even closer as friends. Despite our good reasons for moving to MD, we were sad to leave them behind. We'd miss being able to cross into each others' yards whenever we were in the mood and hang out in each others' sukkahs in the fall. My older son loves her daughter and I was also sad to separate them.

A.K. and I have a friendship where we are just comfortable hanging out and talking. We don't have to be doing anything productive. We still find time to catch up in person, even if it's just by Skype (which never seems to be working right when we chat). We got to hang out last winter when she made it clear that she really wanted us at her daughter's birthday party. We were glad to be invited and even drove out during a snowstorm to get there. When we reached their house, she and her husband were still awake and we stayed up even later just talking. It was really nice. A.K. is one of the most down to earth and non-pretentious people I know. It's a joy to be friends with her and I'm glad we had the opportunity to be neighbors even for a little while. I still want her and her family to move to our current neighborhood, as I feel they would fit in really well here. Maybe if they got a house close enough to ours, we could finally get that trampoline....

Mr. Bailey

I've been absent from [Fiction] Friday over the last two weeks. Just busy and then didn't feel well due to an ear infection. I wasn't in a creative mood as a result.

This week's [Fiction] Friday post theme: A covert trip into an attic reveals something unexpected.

DJ came back to her room after getting a large bowl of popcorn for everyone to share. "What did I miss?"

Allie flipped open the latest "Seventeen" magazine to reveal a rather sexy picture of Zac Efron. "Couldn't you just die?!? He's so hot!"

"He's okay," Ginger piped in, peering over the issue of "Teen Beat" that featured the Jonas Brothers.

DJ tossed a few pieces of popcorn at Ginger. "Joe Jonas is all yours, when Demi's done with him. Anyway, are we going to watch "17 again" or what?"

"I have a better idea" Allie said, putting down her magazine. Let's do makeovers!

"My mom never lets me wear makeup and you know it. She'll kill me!" Ginger hid behind her magazine again.

"Come on girls, this is a slumber party. Let's tell ghost stories. Did you know that there's a ghost in my house? Madison told me about him."

"Your sister is such a liar. She's just jealous that you're having a slumber party while she got grounded for making out with a guy or something like that. So, who wants to try out my newest nail colors?"

"She drove our mom's car to McDonald's by herself while on her permit."

"Ooooh. Such a rebel. Anyway, I'm all for the ghost story. Makeovers are stupid."

"Thanks Ginger." Allie grumbled while starting on the first layer of Bad Girl Blue on her toes.

"So, there's this ghost named Mr. Bailey who lives in our attic. He's here to avenge the murder of his wife and daughter, who were killed in this very room."

"Ew! I hope I'm not sitting on blood." Ginger jumped up, knocking over some of the popcorn.

"Seriously Ginger, it's just a story." Allie was now working on her fingernails with Nights of Passionfruit.

"If I may continue---" DJ's story was interrupted by a loud crash from above.

"What was that?!?" Ginger was shaking now.

"Why, Mr. Bailey, of course!"

"I think it's time we go to your attic to check it out for ourselves. Then we can prove that Mr. Bailey doesn't exist." Allie put down her nail polish and started blowing on her fingernails to quickly dry them, while balancing on the balls of her feet to not mess up the work she did on her toes.

"There's no way we're doing that. My mom said the attic is off limits. It's not safe up there. Too many broken floor beams."

"I think somebody is too chicken," Allie taunted.

"You go up there by yourself if you're so interested. You're the one who didn't care for a ghost story in the first place." DJ tried to call Allie's bluff this time.

"Fine. I'll call out if I need backup."

DJ and Ginger went back their respective spots on the bed and bean bag chair, where they immersed themselves in another set of the latest teen magazine issues. They were interrupted by a shout from above. "Hey DJ, do you have a flashlight? It's really dark up here."

"I hope you're being careful." DJ shouted up to the attic. "If you get hurt, my mom will never let me hear the end of it. I'll probably be grounded from sleepovers for life." Just then, they both heard a howling sound and some rustling.

"What are you doing in my home? Did you kill Margie and Bethany?" The voice was low and gravelly.

Allie grabbed a flashlight from DJ and swung it in the general direction of the sound. She then saw an image of a man on the back wall. It disappeared as quickly as it appeared. She screamed and dropped her flashlight and scrambled back down the steps, nearly tripping on DJ who was at the bottom. "I saw Mr. Bailey! You were right!"

"I think I should go home. This is getting too realistic." Ginger started putting her magazines back into her bag.

"Maybe now that he knows we know about him, he'll go away," DJ suggested. "Let's watch the movie now and forget this ever happened. We don't want my mom to know what we saw."

"Can we watch downstairs? I don't want to be near the attic right now." Ginger reluctantly stopped packing and headed for the stairs leading to the family room.

"Sounds good. We're not going to let a stupid old ghost ruin our night of fun!"

"Yeah. Stupid old ghost." Allie, looking pale, followed them downstairs.

In the attic, Madison giggled quietly to herself as she packed up the old slide projector and microphone. Twelve year-olds are so gullible.

I wish I could go back to college...

Well, not really. It's just a good song from "Avenue Q" that makes me nostalgic for my dorm days. I realize that I don't have any online blogs from my college days. I kept a journal, but it is handwritten and more private than my blogs tend to be. Writing my "Friendship Friday" posts has allowed me to think back on some of the fun and amusing times from my college days. I thought I'd list some of my favorite moments from college or my favorite things about that period of my life.

* Snowball fight at midnight on the quad during junior year.
* Walking all the way to College Hills mall on a hot September day during freshman year because my friend and I didn't think to take the bus. We were singing "Les Miz" songs the whole way there.
* While waiting to see a comedy show, "I'll be There for You" was playing and everyone clapped at the beginning. Shows how many "Friends" fans there are.
* Freshman weekend...getting hypnotized to forget my name and the number 8 and seeing Weird Al perform live in concert.
* The many times my friends and I walked to the original Steak 'N Shake before it closed down.
* Theater of Ted and all the crazy things that went on. I think my sister was traumatized by the guy who liked to take off his clothes and chase around people he didn't like. I had fun the few times I was brave enough to perform there.
* Wing nights at Vrooman dining center.
* Going to Peoria with a guy I had just met to see "Rocky Horror." Going back there in the spring with a bigger group of friends. The following year, getting to perform in "Rocky Horror" on campus.
* Gaining an appreciation of country music from the woman I worked for off campus.
* Everyone piling in a tiny car to go to Denny's.
* Going trick-or-treating on Halloween.
* The Coffeehouse. That's all I need to say, really. :)
* The many times my friends and I would cram into my single dorm room to watch movies.
* Going to dinner in my Tweety slippers because I could. Better yet, going to class in my pajamas.
* The night I came back to school super homesick during freshman year and my friends helped me lug my duffel bag over a mile to their house so we could watch a "Seinfeld" marathon together.
* Trying to work on a group project but discussing our teacher and her "brothel."
* Karaoke nights featuring "Wise Men Say" guy.
* Being part of Guerilla Theater Troupe. Performing both on campus and at another school.
* Many, many trips to Super Wal-Mart. It was the place to be on a Friday night.
* Seeing classic films at Capen Cinema and The Normal Theater. Also, seeing free sneak previews at Capen.
* Eating in the dark back room at the Watterson dining center before they changed the look of everything.
* The experience of living in Watterson Towers. It's like nothing else.
* Checking for mail every day and singing "Nobody Loves Me" if our mailboxes were empty.
* Watching a marathon of "My So-Called Life" in the lobby of Hewitt after my roommate took home her TV a week early.
* The first time I ever used the Internet and had no clue how to send an e-mail.
* Corn Fest in downtown Normal with their delicious hot buttered corn.
* Buying used CDs at Campustown Supply.
* The Beer Burgers and Bad Music Nights at Rocky's (which is now a children's museum).
* Making fun of police reports in the Daily Vidette.
* Working in food service. It wasn't always the greatest experience but I met some interesting people that way. I also learned how to cook eggs, not that I'll ever eat them!
* Getting takeout from China Wok.
* Enjoying the days when the campus was closed because of too much snow and we could just lounge around in the dorms.
* Receiving my first perfect score on an exam after studying obsessively for it.
* Gathering in one of the TV rooms in the Southside Dining Center to watch "Jerry Springer" every afternoon.
* Staying up all hours of the night because I procrastinated on term papers. Knowing I wasn't the only one.
* The obnoxious noise the phone class registration system made when the class I wanted wasn't available. It was fun to make fun of it.

College was full of memorable experiences for me. I hope this post gave you a taste of what my college days were like.

We'll always have Mr. Aah

This week's Friendship Friday post is about two friends again, since we were all roommates in college at one point.

I met C.C. during orientation before freshman year of college. For some reason, I thought her name was Lisa. We ended up in psychology class together during our first semester of school. We'd study together but that usually led to getting off topic every few minutes and ordering Chinese food. We started hanging out more often when we were home for winter break. We had napkin fights at Baker's Square and went to see "The Lion King." During second semester, we started hanging out more often and I got to know her roommate, as well. (That's another story for another time.) We started developing a lot of inside jokes and would make each other laugh a lot. During the following years, we stayed close. Then she went to Australia to study abroad for a year. We stayed in touch and then picked up where we left off when she returned. During my last year at school, we decided to move into the same apartment space. It was a house owned by a retired couple and they rented out their basement.

I also met J.M. during freshman year. I believe we had some classes together and we did some of the same activities outside of class. We also traveled amongst a similar group of friends. I always thought she was nice and enjoyed talking to her. In one class we had together, we were put into a small group for a project. We'd joke around about our teacher and some of the weird stories she told us. It made us less productive, but we did manage to come up with a finished project. Then she left school for a while. A few years later, I met her brother but didn't make the connection right away. Then he helped me make the connection one day and told me she was coming back to school. I told her about the rooms opening up in our apartment space and she decided to live with C.C. and myself during my last semester of school.

We had a lot of fun being housemates. I would cook for everyone when I was in the mood. We would spend hours sitting in the living room and talking about stories from the town where J.M. grew up. It was the best housemate situation. We gave each other space but also knew when one another needed company. Toward the end of the year, I was buying generic soda and one kind was a version of Dr. Pepper called Mr. Aah. I told C.C. about it after I showed her a crazy note that some colleagues had given me. It became a huge joke after that and anytime I came to visit them at school, I had to make sure we had a bottle of Mr. Aah.

There was also a thing with "Waiting for Guffman," which J.M. and I both love. We especially liked when Christopher Guest said "Everybody Dance!" She'd get me birthday cakes that said the same thing. Another time, I visited them and we were up all night laughing over a demented book in which a girl gives a boy a "poo and booger sandwich." So they got me a chocolate cake with mint chocolate chip ice cream and called it a "poo and booger cake." Then there was the broken table at the Canadian themed restaurant. We always had lots of good laughs like that!

Since that time, C.C. had moved back to the suburbs and we saw each other more often. I connected her with some friends of mine from high school and they became close too. J.M. was still living downstate and we'd go to visit her and her ferrets. We'd usually go to a movie or hang out at the Coffeehouse. She eventually moved to the city. The last time I saw her was in the fall of 2008. I recently saw C.C. when I was back in town though. The two of them get to hang out a lot since they both live in the city now. We all keep up with each other through Facebook too. I enjoy the friendships I share with both women and am thankful for all the fun times and laughs in college and beyond. I wish them all the happiness in the world. No matter how often or little we see each other, I know we'll always have Mr. Aah.

A "Thriller" of a birthday

I've decided to wait till after Tisha B'Av ended to post this week's edition of "Time Warp Tuesday" in honor of my birthday. :)



This was the party my husband and some close friends threw for me when I turned 30. I can't believe it's been four years since that special day. So much has happened in the last four years....

*Trying to run a work-from-home business, but scrapping it after it was going nowhere
*Becoming Shomer Shabbos and observing more laws of Kashrut.
*Moving to New Jersey...and then moving down the street a few months later
*Giving birth to my younger son in 2008
*Watching both my boys grow into little men
*Getting a medical billing job
*My grandpa passing away
*Having to find our cat a new home due to my son's allergies (and succeeding at it)
*Moving to Maryland
*Landing my current job, which I still love
*Surviving Snowbliteration 2010
*My older son getting a cochlear implant
*Starting Chick Lit Central
*Getting to meet some of my favorite authors at book signings and through Chick Lit Central
*Becoming a parent blogger for EmpoweringParents.com
*Learning how to knit, even though I still have half a scarf to finish before winter
*All the new friends I've made over the last few years and all the long time friendships that have grown with me

We'll always have Lino

This week's Friendship Friday post is about D.R.

I met D.R. towards the end of my senior year of high school. She was at L.A.'s sweet 16 party and she seemed nice and outgoing. A few months later, she accompanied L.A., another mutual friend and myself to see "Rocky Horror." After that, we lost contact for a while.

When I was a junior in college, she started her freshman year at ISU. L.A. put us back in contact and we started hanging out more often. We became really close that year. We'd go to the Coffeehouse, Theater of Ted and hang out in each others' dorms. We always found stuff to laugh about. There was Dan, my R.A. (that's what he called himself on a voice message), the brain stem chiropractor, the girl who pooped in a bucket, my attempts to speak German, Spoooooon, Norm McDonald guy, lots of stuff we picked up from "Saturday Night Live" ("I boosted it!") and, of course, Lino. Lino was this attractive guy who lived on my floor in Watterson Towers. He would join us for meals sometimes and would make random comments ("Orange chicken, good choice."). His name was actually Nino, but we liked to call him Lino and it just stuck. We'd laugh hysterically whenever we saw him and we'd come up with ideas for shirts, such as "Lino's Girl." Once I even wrote "Call Me" on his door and then we sprinted to the stairwell before he could catch us. He had a younger brother who looked similar to him and we called him "Lino's brother." He had a name, but we liked our nickname better.

D.R. and I would sit next to each other in the computer lab and chat with each other in the same group. It was more fun that way. I make fun of people who e-mail each other in the same dorm room or house, but I'm guilty of that even now! We even met a few of the chat room people in person. D.R. also became part of a group of friends that had been established since second semester freshman year and kept expanding to include more people similar to us. We hung out during our breaks too. We had our happy and sad moments together that year too. Her roommate was awful, so I let her crash in my room a lot. D.R. really made junior year special for me and I always have fond memories of that time.

After that year, D.R. spent a semester in Austria and then moved to New Mexico. We continued to stay in touch by e-mail and get together when we were in the Chicago area at the same time. I was always excited to see her whenever we got together. I even got her involved with "Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind." We'd see it together occasionally.

I even got to know D.R.'s family over time. I felt bad that I couldn't be there for her in person when her father passed away (due to lack of child care at the time). He was a very sweet man and she got a lot of her good-natured personality from him. Her mom is also very kind and I think about her kitty cat pancakes even though I've never had them.

D.R. is very down-to-earth and isn't afraid to speak her mind. She would never be superficial and she always treats her friends well. Last I heard, things were going well in her life and she even got a dog. I'm glad that she is happy and I hope her happiness continues over time. We haven't been in touch in a while and I haven't seen her in over 2 years. We catch up on Facebook from time to time, but I'd love to hear more about what she's been up to lately. No matter what, I know we'll always be friends and we'll always have Lino (or his brother).

On Hiatus

We're down one member, as Charmingly Random decided it was time to pick up and move on. She's taking her blog in new directions. (Not the group from "Glee.") She'll be missed very much. In the meantime, we are deciding on if and how we want to continue with and restructure the blog project. I'll leave you with some of my favorites from the past months, in case you missed them the first time around.

Enjoy!

All in Hashem's Plan
A Note about a Quote
What if?
Happy Birthday to Me! (More fitting for this time of year...)
To Life, L'Chaim!
With a dreamy, far-off look and her nose stuck in a book...
In a state of being merry