Cheryl and I met in 7th grade and immediately became best buds (seems like we had most of our classes together that year!). I'm afraid we were slightly notorious for giggling uncontrollably (especially while trying to recite a poem about crickets in English class) and passing notes to each other during class (or throwing notes and accidentally hitting someone in the head). We had nicknames for all the guys we liked (or didn't like), many of which randomly were names of fruits or vegetables - that way we could talk about them freely without anyone knowing, of course.
In fact, we were once bored (I think it was in 8th grade) and so we wrote a story on the sidewalk around my block with sidewalk chalk, one word per square of cement. The story was about us (princesses, I believe) and the guys we liked at the time (very cryptically disguised with nicknames, of course); it also made mention of the "Evil Ms. [blank]" (one of our more...interesting...teachers) and it also mentioned Ms. Weight (who was our fabulous English teacher at the time, who we loved and she even loved us, despite the giggling).
Well, one day we were sitting in English class and Ms. Weight picked up a paper and started reading. Cheryl and I looked at each other in horror - it was our sidewalk story! We tried to stay calm but we were so completely shocked and confused. AND the guys we liked were in our class - both of them. Talk about the most awkward/random/crazy experience ever. After the bell rang we waited until everyone else had left the room, then we walked up to Ms. Weight - I'm sure we had the most confused looks on our faces. It turns out that a woman who worked in the school office lived in my neighborhood, and had been walking her dog when she came upon our story. Noticing the teachers' names, she walked around the block and wrote down our story, and then gave it to Ms. Weight (who was the good teacher in our story - thankfully, she did not give it to the other teacher). I think my favorite part of this whole crazy experience was when, after Ms. Weight had explained how she had gotten a hold of our story, she pulled the paper to her chest, like she was hugging it, and said, "I love it!"
Well I think I really could go on and on and on (no, I really could....) - about leaving Christmas trees on boys' doorsteps with notes to their mother; asking guys to dances by leaving my dog on the porch while we were "hiding" very noticeably in the corner by the garage door (and trying desperately not to laugh out loud); making lame videos (which we thought were hilarious, and they probably still are) for countless school projects; Cheryl calling a pesky guy (with me quietly listening in via a 3-way call) in 9th grade and using a script that my Dad wrote for her in order to get him to quit calling her and asking her out (the best part was when she said "and plus, that would be a SOY violation" - to which he replied, "yeah, that's true" - when he really had no idea whatsoever that my Dad meant a "Strength of Youth" violation); the same pesky boy talking to Cheryl on the phone and Cheryl writing a note to her Mom asking her to make up some excuse to get her off the phone - so her Mom yelled, "Cheryl! It's time to go to the Army/Navy Store!"; kidnapping footballs belonging to one of our guy friends and holding them for ransom (with 4 of our other girlfriends) in order to make our guy friends take us out on a date.....(by the way, old high school pals'o'mine - I'd love to hear any of YOUR fun memories of high school - just leave it in a comment!) - anyway, the point is, I have got so many fun and hilarious memories with Cheryl, we really had so much fun and I am so grateful for such a wonderful best friend. She went to college in New York and now lives in Virginia with her husband Dave, who is in the Navy - so we haven't seen each other much over the past few years, but I love that when we do see each other we can get together and it is just like old times (except not nearly as hyper) :) I love ya, Cher!
Here are some pictures from today -
And, I know I posted some "blast from the past" pictures of Cheryl and I recently, but I just could not resist a few more (typing up all those memories just forced me to look through some old pictures, and they are great, so I had to share some...)
Homecoming, our senior year
graduation - ya gotta love the tassel in my mouth...
this one night we were craving chocolate pie - so we bought one and ate it - yum!
ok, so these are priceless, but it's also kind of one of those "had to be there" times - we are not all pictured here, but here are the gals who held the footballs for ransom (man, were we really that desperate to go on dates?) - it was me and Cheryl, Kathleen, Stefeni, Joanna, and Jenny
fun times :)
