Randomness Part 1

Isn't it funny how a single song can get you thinking and remembering all kinds of stuff? That is what happened to me tonight. I stayed later than usual at work today (7:45) and I just didn't feel like talking on the phone during my drive home like I usually do (I do a lot of my chatting and catching up/keeping in touch with people on the phone on my way home as many of you know - I like to use my bluetooth handsfree device that makes me look like I am part of The Collective - I get pretty strange looks when I am walking around SF with that thing on while I am talking even though it is not an uncommon occurence in the city for people to talk to themselves).

I had the greatest hits of Heart in my cd player and one of my all time favorite songs by them "There's the Girl" was on. This started me on a whole line of thinking because it took me back in time to when I was listening to Heart a lot. Mostly it got me on this whole I-need-to-get-back-in-touch-with-certain-people track. I guess I have been trending toward that anyway lately but with family mostly.

That train of thought took me down memory lane, as I was thinking of who I have lost contact with and wondering what they are up to now. I really consider my closer friends (even if I haven't seen them in years) to be a part of my extended family anyway so I guess it is not that much of a stretch to want to touch bases. Here are a few of the things that came to mind tonight that I feel like writing about...

I recently came across an old polaroid picture of me on the way to my Jr Prom when I was up in Kelseyville for my Great Grandma's funeral. I was so surprised that my great grandma had that picture, I don't even remember giving it to her, but there is was, in the stack with a bunch of other photos (man I loved that velvet and purple dress!) This got me wondering what Jason (my date for the evening) , his brother Nick, and another friend of mine (well almost like a little brother actually), Michael, are up to now. It has been eons since I talked to Jason or Nick. I guess I know pretty much what Mike is up to lately unless he has gotten married in the last year or so. My mom's old high school friend Gerri (her son is Michael and her jerk boyfriend at the time's brother is Jason and Nick's dad) was living on a 40 acre ranch near Lodi, CA (Yep, the same Lodi in the Credence song with the lyrics "oh lord, stuck in Lodi again") for a long period of time while I was growing up. My mom and I would spend a lot of weekends out there. It was a lot of fun traipsing out in the pastures getting muddy and following the creek, catching tadpoles or just plain walking in the water getting our shoes soaked, riding horses (or getting stepped on by one, and bucked off of one in my case), feeding the cows, playing in the barn, ect. I was probably around 8 to 12 years old when they were there, they moved to Lodi again later. Mike (when he was not at his dad's) and Jason and Nick (when they weren't at their mother's and when Carl would be visiting his brother - Brian the JERK) were all partners in crime intent on torturing the sweet little girl (me, in case you missed the reference :-P). Well I don't know how sweet I was actually, I was pretty tomboy-ish and I had to prove to those guys that I wasn't a sissy. They would do everything from stealing my shoes to trying to trick me in to going in the pond with the leeches. At least they got nicer to me as the years rolled on though and I did a pretty good job of keeping in touch with them for a long time.

Anne is another person I often wonder how she is doing as well. She has a bad habit of spamming me with patriotic emails but never answering the real emails I send to her. I went to Jr High and High School with her and she graduated the same year that I did. My friend Ryan actually launched her off the front of his car one night when a bunch of friends and I were all hanging out at my house (Ryan is lucky she didn't pound him to pieces for that!). She was also part of the infamous games of follow the leader where my arm almost got ran over and Ryan was in the spotlight (it was cold out there wasn't it Ryan!!). LOL!!

I also wonder how my old best friend Becci is doing. I wonder if she has any kids yet or not. She met her husband Jeremy because I had been on the same bus as his brother, Jon, when I went to the Soviet Union in 1992. Jon came out to visit his brother (who was in the navy at the time stationed in Alameda), and made the time to visit some of the California people who shared his bus (my bus included people from California and Illinois). Well, Jon, Jeremy, Becci, another guy who was on the bus as well, Sanjay, and I, all went to dinner at Sizzler and it was history between Jeremy and Becci from there! When they got married they eloped but I was there too for moral support. I was the photographer, the maid of honor, the witness, and the person who threw them their reception (dinner in Old Sacramento). It has been a long time since I have talked to her... I would guess that one of the last times I talked to her was at my wedding reception/party.

Well, I guess that is enough randomness for now. Too much thinking is bad for sleeping. For those of you who actually read my rambling post down memory lane, thanks for listening!