Fa la la la la

Dent and scratch on car--I have to decide whether to call insurance folks. There's a chance the doe is just bruised. That would be lovely.

Picked up new glasses today--they have bling. I'm just sayin.'

It looks like Friday I am going to see friends I haven't seen in decades. My first "real" boyfriend, his sisters, the crowd we ran with (he was from one district, I another, which was quite a scandal since the schools were "arch-rivals"), and even after we broke up, we all stayed close. I was in both his elder sisters' weddings, his mom played the organ at both my parents' funerals....

It will be good to see them all, but on the other hand I'm oddly nervous about it. On the other hand, the first time his mother saw me I was sitting on the porch with Jim, wearing a fringed, brightly colored poncho, and she was worried because I looked a little...weird to be dating her son. Well, it was the 70's!!! Hello--fringe much????? Over time she realized I was no weirder than the Smith girls next door, whose father was a Methodist minister, whose mother was a Quaker, and who both went on to stunning careers in law.

Christmas-time we always went caroling together in Hamilton, even to the Balmuth's, being careful to sing only secular seasonal songs and "We Wish You a Happy Hanukkah" there. We tended to not sing at the Ho's, even though the younger Ho usually sang with us--we couldn't find anything appropriate there.

Then Christmas Eve my dad would drive me over to their house for Christmas Eve cheer before we all traipsed over to St. Mary's to sing midnight mass, back in the day when it actually spanned the midnight hour.

So, it looks like Friday I'll see them all again. And a few others, like Dave who actually did become a professional musician, and maybe lawyer-Lisa will be there, and maybe Gordon (his dad was the Baptist minister who headed the town youth group), and Beth and Judy and...

Well, we'll see. If nothing else, we'll stand around the piano, drink, tell each other lies, and sing showtunes until we're hoarse.

Still a little scared, but thinking it through, more happy than not.

And this is a surprise because...?

I'm not sure why this is a surprise. Anyone who has ever watched really serious cheerleading squads knows that heart-stopping moment when some 96 lb. girl is being thrown 12-15 feet in the air by 6+ ft. tall boys above a basketball court. Sometimes multiple girls at the same time.

When you're lucky, she gets caught. Or lands well.

But, well, then there's the rest of the time.

At least the football and hockey players get pads.