What’s so great about the High School Reunion?

It’s finally here…..it seemed so far off on the calender and now it is just days away.  I’m pretty excited for my 30 year high school reunion.  It seems different than the 10 or the 20, or even the 25.  I am really looking forward to seeing people I don’t usually see and catching up on their lives.

I believe I view a reunion in a different way than most.  Many people think they will be judged based on their life since high school.  Are they rich? Successful? Married? Divorced? Kids? Some of our old insecurities can raise their ugly head.  Many attendees of a high school reunion don’t want to engage in small talk or idle chit chat.  There will be some of that I am sure.  But this time I think there will be more. I’ve heard that the 30 year reunion is really, really fun.  I think that people will be genuinely happy to see one another.

At this point in my life, I am appreciative of the experiences I had back in the day.  The only people that can relive certain events with me are the people I went to high school (and junior high) with.  Our class had a unique set of experiences that no other class had.  Some of them were good, some of them were bad. But no one else in our lives knows what it was like for us…..or shares the memories we do……

For example…..we were all in the gymnasium for that pep rally when the air conditioning came on and the sophmores were doused in baby powder.  (Thank you R. Jones for putting baby powder in the air ducts and giving us a memory!!! )  We were also in that gym when our class was the first junior class to ever defeat the senior class in the RHS Olympics.  I think the Class of ’82 is still ticked about that one!

How cool was it when the University of Texas marching band played on our field during half time of a football game?  Who remembers running into Morgan Fairchild in the hallway when she came to visit her mother….one of the English teachers? Wasn’t it great when our basketball team made it farther in the playoffs than had ever been done before?

How mad were we when we got to be seniors and thought we would all have lockers in A hall, only to find out our senior year, that the classes would be mixed in all the halls?  I can’t remember his name, but what a sweet guy my locker partner was to let me and Cheryl cram all our Eaglette gear and pom poms into that one locker while he just used the top shelf. We just HAD to be in A hall!!!!

I’ll probably get in trouble for this one…..but who remembers the Eaglette brownie “incident”?  (I was NOT involved.)  It was controversial……but who didn’t laugh when a bunch of guys wearing Eaglette outfits ran across the stage during the Senior Talent show with a giant sign that said, “Eaglette Bake Sale”?  (I laughed hysterically when I ran a 5K at RHS a couple of years ago and they really were having an Eaglette Bake Sale.)

And of course, just being a graduate of Richardson High School puts us all in a category like no other.  RHS has quite a list of famous alumni.  Don’t we all think we are 50% cooler than anyone else we know just because Jeff Dunham graduated from RHS?  Even though it was the year BEFORE we got there? How fun is it to root for Bill Engvall on “Dancing with the Stars” this season knowing he was an Eagle!!?  Who else jumped up and down in their living rooms when Hilary Swank thanked Troy Nankin in both of her Academy Award speeches?

Famous alumni aside, we went to high school with some really great people.  I am fascinated by the roads our fellow classmates have taken since we graduated.  I am a people person and I love to hear stories of college and career and personal lives.  We had a very diverse and interesting class.  I feel like I was really lucky to know people from different races, religions and backgrounds.  I have always felt that I grew up in a well-rounded atmosphere.  Not a bubble.

So at this reunion, I’m not interested in idle chatter.  I want to hear real life stories.  Funny stories and interesting stories.  I might even meet some people that I didn’t know in high school.

And of course, I am most looking forward to being with my girls……my lifelong friends that have stuck together ever since we were in junior high.  That will be the best part…..making more memories to share in the future.

It’s going to be a great weekend!!!!  Can’t wait to see you all!

My angels are named Mindy

Adam has been 21 for about one month now.  Every year on his birthday, I think about Mindy W.  Before Adam was born, I had met Mindy W. one time.  Her husband had worked with my husband.  I met her at a party.  I knew that she was a NICU nurse.  That was about all I knew about her.
When Adam was born, he was a full term, almost 9 lb. baby.  The delivery was not textbook, but not traumatic either.  Two days after he was born, he had a seizure in his arm and was whisked away to the NICU faster than you could blink.  We were terrified.  It took a couple of days to diagnose Adam.  Sometime before, during or after his delivery, he had a stroke.  There was a small area in the brain that was damaged and this had caused the seizure.  We had a wonderful neurologist, who assured us that this was somewhat common, and that he believed that Adam would be fine.  After Adam’s first night in the NICU, I was discharged from the hospital.  Steve and I stayed at my Nana’s house as it was closer to the hospital.  That Wednesday morning, as soon as I woke up, I called the NICU and asked for the nurse in charge of Adam.  I wanted to know how my baby had done during the night.  We got to visit with Adam during the day on Wednesday.
Thursday morning, we called again, asking for the nurse in charge of Adam Gotwalt.  Next thing I knew, a voice came on the phone and said, “Mindy W_____”.  It was the Mindy we knew!  When we got to the hospital that day, we learned that Adam would be coming home the very next day.  Mindy W. was with me all day that day.  She helped me learn how to take care of Adam.  She taught me how to administer the medicine that he needed to take to keep the seizures at bay.  She talked with all the doctors and helped to determine that yes, I could nurse Adam even with the medications I was taking and that he was taking.  She gave me confidence.  She answered all my questions.
On Friday, we came to the hospital to take our boy home.  Mindy W. taught me how to bathe Adam and helped me dress him.  She walked all the way out to the car with us.  She was amazing!  She was the exact angel that I needed at that moment.  I was so thankful for her and I have told her that many times.  She was my first angel named Mindy!

My second angel named Mindy…..well, I have known her for a very long time.  She went to my high school.  Then she went to my college.  Then she pledged my sorority!  We are sisters.  Then she had 4 kids!  For some and maybe all of those kids, she or her mom rented a yard stork from me (a business I used to have) when they were born.  I had not seen Mindy P. in a long time when I ran into her at the airport in February.  She was dropping her son off to fly to a hockey tournament in Minnesota.  I was flying to Minnesota to see my dad for what would be the last time.  When she asked me where I was going, she could tell by the look on my face that it wasn’t good. As I explained the situation, she said she would pray for me that weekend.  It turned out that her son’s team was on my same flight.

The day that I flew home, I noticed that her son’s hockey team was on my flight again.  It was a very, very difficult flight back to Dallas.  I wasn’t sure if Mindy P. would be picking up her son.  As I stood at the baggage claim, I looked over and saw her walking towards me.  She gave me a big hug and told me she had been praying for me that whole weekend.  It was so reassuring to see her.  She was like a big hug from God.  She was my angel of the day.  Steve was picking me up and I knew he was outside waiting for me with Tanner in the car.  But it was so great to have someone right there at the baggage claim that knew what was going on that could comfort me.

We don’t get to choose who our angels are.  God does that.  But I have since decided that all my angels are named Mindy.  There are the angels I know and there are ones I don’t know about.   I am grateful for the comfort they bring and the smiles they have brought to my heart.  I am grateful for a God who loves me and sends me His angels.  For me…..my angels are all Mindys.

Appropriate Behavior

Since Tanner has started back to school, his teacher and others at the school are focusing on “Appropriate” behavior.  For Tanner, this means, among other things, not grabbing people’s iPhones and not playing with long hair.  Since almost everyone has a smart phone these days, the grabbing phones issue is a pretty big deal.  It is such a temptation for him.  We are working on this.

The hair thing is an even bigger behavior challenge.  Ever since Tanner was little he has loved to play with hair and likes to stick his nose in long hair.  I think he likes the way it feels on his nose.  He will often sit next to me and just play with my hair.  I like it.  Many times when he greets my friends, he will touch their hair or stick his nose in their hair.  For him, it is a way of connecting with people.  But it is not appropriate behavior.

I understand that.  It is cute if you know Tanner and he does this.  It was cute when he was 6, 10 or 12.  But when he is 30 and doesn’t know you and sticks his nose in your hair…..that will not be so cute.  So it really is time to modify the behavior.  For the past few months, I have been encouraging him not to touch hair.  But I was still letting him play with mine.  Don’t play with any hair except for mom’s!  That’s okay, right?  NOPE!  According to the teacher (s)…..don’t let him play with ANY hair.  Including mine.

Easier said than done.  Now, we are not only modifying Tanner’s behavior, we have to modify mine too!  I’m not so happy about that.  I like when Tanner plays with my hair.  It feels nice.  It is a way for him to be affectionate.  I think it is comforting to him.  I know that many times, it is comforting to me.

The most recent time that he has comforted me by playing with my hair was in February.  It was the night that my Dad passed away.  I was sitting at the end of my couch and out of the blue, Tanner came into the living room, knelt down on the side of the couch and began to play with my hair.  He did this for about 5 minutes.  He had never played with my hair in this particular way before….kneeling down next to the couch.  Just a few minutes after this happened, I got the call that my Dad was gone. 

The next day, as Steve and I talked about the timing of the events the night before, we realized that Tanner had been playing with my hair at the exact same time that my Dad was taking his last breaths.  Tanner is very intuitive in some strange ways.  I don’t think that this was a coincidence.  He was comforting me before I even knew that I needed it.

This is why it is hard for me to make him stop playing with my hair.  I’m working on it.  I know it’s best for him and his behavior in the future.  And I also know that I don’t want to interfere in his instincts…..the times that he knows something that I do not.  It will be a fine balance…..but we’ll figure it out.  We always do.