Still Crazy After All These Years

Beth, Shari, and I in the parking lot on our way to see Kelli

The internet has a crazy power over some of us. And, after going twenty years without certain people in your life, the internet seems to have the power to bring them to your door. That is what seems to be happening in my life lately.

Well, more accurately, I have been on a roller coaster ride down memory lane for the last four years. The ride honestly started while working a god-awful waitressing job at a hideous chain restaurant. I would tie my apron on before every shift, try to muster up my strength, and wonder "who will I have the pleasure of seeing/waiting on tonight?". Because every shift at that god-awful job was like an episode of 'This is Your Life' playing out for me in the dining room. It was, at times, painful.

Then, the roller coaster ride sped up. With the horrible chain restaurant job behind me, my family was walking through the minefield that comes with a loved one battling cancer. People appeared and offered to help. When my father's battle ended, even more people appeared and one familiar face after another offered support. And then, I found myself living in my hometown again. Running into people from my past seemed pretty likely.

After staying clear of the town I went to college in for almost 14 years, I found myself there twice in the span of a few months this past year. And since then have had many welcome reappearances and connections with the long gone college crowd. High School pals and acquaintances were resurfacing with more frequency. Then, in what I have to assume is the final stop on this crazy ride, the faces of Middle School and Junior High were in front of me. One day Kelli emailed and said "I'm coming to Maine in November, and would love to see you!"

So, it's like that. Well, ok. And I started to scheme.
I thought it would be great to see Kelli after all these years, but then I thought it would be EXTRA GREAT if I could track down our other pals, Beth and Shari. For these are the friends of that time in life when boundaries and rules were to be tested and experimented with. The people who I shared first attempts with booze, smoking, sneaking out of the house, and other random acts of bad behavior (if my mother is reading this, then that last sentence was just for show). There is a definite bond with the people who helped you figure out which paths you felt like you could handle walking on or not.

My hope was that Kelli would never see it coming. And she didn't. It's safe to say that we surprised her.

Before I ramble on any further with the story of an amazing day, I should remember that this is technically a photo blog- a blog about photographing life! SO, I came armed with camera. I shot these images on a 20mm lens at 800 ISO. I didn't want to use a flash and hoped a few things would be in focus. I also wanted to see how much noise was happening with my camera. Some of the colors are a little funky, which I like. Besides being a great day with old friends, this was a good exercise with my equipment. I guess I was doing some modern day testing of boundaries, trying to see how much I could get away with...


And this, well it's the face and the smile I hoped we would see.









Here Samantha and Jonah (Kelli's son) watch us loud ladies. I love the colors.

So, here we are ..

(this photo is not by me)

We spent the day erupting in fits of laughter and disturbing the peace. Similar to how we spent most of our days together so many years ago. I'm looking forward to our next get together...