Catch a falling star...by kim

So yesterday I was very sad, it affected me all day! I guess I've gotten over that slump:)

When I got home from work, I read an email, from my first best friend, the one who I just assumed would always be a stones throw away.

The day I met Christina, we were on the kindergarten bus coming home, my family had just moved from Germany, and while our house was getting ready to move in, we were living in an orange VW eurovan, due to delays in the closing, I would have to start my first day of kindergarten with my mom driving me to school, and then I would come home on the bus to my new house!

My first cloudy memory of her:

I was sitting next to this little girl, we were talking and I was telling her that I was moving into my new house, when we got to my stop, she was getting off too, I told her it was that house, and she said "NO! You are not! That is my friends house, they live there, so you can't" (me being even more naive than I am now) said, "Oh, then its the blue house, I always wanted a blue house", she spun on her heels and walked to her house. My mom came to get me, as I was walking to the door of the blue house, and said "No it's this house, the brick one" I told her that it couldn't be that house cause the little girl with brown hair told me so.

She got over it, very quickly! :)

We began our friendship when I was 5. Our houses were about 15 feet apart. We could yell from our kitchens, and hear eachother. Her window was right by my front door, when I would come home from vacations, I would throw rocks at her window, to tell her I was home. I moved away when I was in 9th grade, we saw eachother a few times, and after High school a few times, but NOT enough. She is the person I share my childhood memories with. I think the last time I saw her was when I was 24, its been 10 years. Too long!!

She was online, on my b'day, to wish me a Happy Birthday. We reminisced and decided it was too long since we had seen eachother. She had been in an accident, a drunk driver hit her and 2 other cars. There was a car first, then her car, then a suburban all at a stop, 1/2 mile from her home, the drunk driver was going 55mph and slammed into them, the suburban ended up in her trunk. Thankfully she is okay and when the driver was dramatically falling out of his car, and looking to her for sympathy, she was calling 911 and helping the girl in the suburban who was 4 months pregnant, she looked at the guy and told him to F-OFF!! At that moment, I realized, I don't know the adult Christina, I only know the 5-14 year old Christina! Life is too short, I need to know her now, I want to see her now! We are trying to get a visit going, I cannot wait!

Oh the things we did, here are some of my most treasured memories of her and I:

We would start our day from the moment we woke up to the moment before we went to bed
We spent a lot of time waiting for the ice cream truck. Good humor was our friend!
We rollerskated more miles than you can imagine. Sometimes my giant newfoundland would pull us all over on our skates, we were excellent skaters!
We walked all the dogs on the block.
We learned how to ride bikes together, and then took off everywhere.
We would have sleepovers and stay up and sneak around the house with glow in the dark lego's.
We would make "fudge" out of nestle quick and water. (Don't worry, I have much better chocolate for us to have now)
We learned to swim together in my pool, we would moon the planes that flew over.
We thought we would grow up to be synchronized swimmer's.
We trick or treated every Halloween together.
We used to sell cards and wrapping paper so we could save enough for the backyard tent.
We played many hours and calloused our palms on my monkey bars.
We were charter members of our club, "The leather ladies" (until we found out it was vinyl hanging all over our fort!)
We played so many Barbies together, I think I had all the barbies, I just made her play.
We also made forts under my pool table.
We played green army men on top of the pool table.
We would take her closet apart and find all sorts of treasures and organize it again.
We would have a garage sale many summers.
We had matching real antique gum ball machines.
We went to a haunted house, and on the way there in her dad's truck we were singing, she told me not to sing, because I really sang bad. (thanks, I still don't sing in public anymore, but loudly in my car with only me and the kids:)
We went to santa's village together.
We would walk to the White Hen Pantry many a days, to get candy, laffy taffy, nerds, sweetarts, watchamacallit, and many more.
We would watch falling stars every summer, on her front porch or mine, talking about everything, the subject changing every year we got older. The last time I remember being 14 and talking about BOYS! We never did see a falling star, but at the time, we swore we did!
We always seemed to like boys in pairs. Steve and Joey, Bart and Kari, ooh that is all I can remember.
We did a dance, that my sister choreographed, with Pink silky shorts and tank and purple pom poms to the music of Dolly Parton, she's working 9-5. It was great!
We did Gymnastics every summer afternoon, with our boom boxes, making up dance routines.
We always had a snack of popcorn or pretzels or cheetoes on the front porch meant for star gazing. One summer, we tried to smoke cheetos (note: smoking cheetoes is not the best idea we ever had)
We would raid her grape vines and make wine. (or so we thought it was wine, it had a lot of sugar, we did not use our feet! When you come, we'll have real wine together:)
We made plenty of outdoor stews, mixing everything we could together to pretend we were cooking.
We got our first perms together, 3 hours of waiting and poof, we looked like blonde and brown haired poodle's, my dad told her so, and she ran home crying, he had to apologize to her, to get her to come back over. (after she got over that, we were water toting, pick carrying buddies again.
We both convinced our parents to send us to private school, just because we heard they had better lunches than public school. (on the first day of school, the big great dane at our bus stop that we loved to visit with, lifted his leg on her and mistook her for a tree,) (sorry Chris I had to tell:)
We both hated the school and wanted to go back to public school, but our parents decided we had to stick with it.
We took ballet together when we were 6, our teacher was always acting really funny, apparently she was drunk, ha!
When we got older, she was playing with the boys, playing catch and kiss. (no way, not me, I hate boys, 1 year later, can I please join the games now?)
We played alot of Truth and dare, we were there for our first truth or dare kisses (not real kisses though, we were only 11 or 12)
We often had different friends, but had a hard time all playing together, we did alot of the "typical girl" things, like fighting over who was better friends and stuff, we wasted too much time on that.
We would make plans for the house we would live in together, and all the animals we would have, we drew out drawing of our house and made a list of the types of dogs and animals we would have.
We saw our first rated R movie together, when we were 13, it was Purple Rain, my dad paid some couple on their first date to go in with us and watch the movie with us. ( yeah, Chris, can you imagine??)
We celebrated many new years together.
We called eachother every morning for Christmas to see what the other got. Every Christmas, to this day, I still remember that!

Boy we did a lot!

Her and I had our rough times too, or my mother would say, we fought like sisters! She would have me over at her house, and take a soda for herself or an ice cream and of course, I would ask for one too, and she would reply "It's the last one" or "I don't want to waste them" (well she was an only child after all;) I had enough of that, and while we were babysitting her, I convinced her to try some dog food. "It's really good, I just ate a whole bunch, trust me, it's delicious" (haha, revenge was sweet, and did I mention I could sell ice to an Eskimo?) She took my bait and ate it, then started choking and spitting, and begging for water (her house was locked up) and I told her "Naaaah, I don't want to waste our water!!!" She threw up, and I was in deep sheiss!

How is it that for the first half of your life, you don't have a day that you don't talk to this person and she is the most important person in your life, and then life happens and keeps going and if you don't nurture it, it is gone. We have already lost half of our other lives together. We no longer know eachother like the back of our hands, we no longer know what the other is thinking or what the other one would like. We need to get to know eachother. We will get to know eachother, I can't wait.

I gave her this blog address. She comes here! Everyone meet Christina, Christina, meet everyone!
Say "Hi Christina". (I expect you to leave a comment and say hi this time!:) (just use the one marked "other")
She sent me the most wonderful email, and now I realize, she is the sister I always wanted! We have alot of time to make up for!

We did so much in 10 years, and now almost 20 more years have gone by, and we only have those memories, we must make new ones!

The next time I see a falling star, I will wish for that:)