Cup 36 - Heather

September 5, 2014

Who ever knew I'd become great friends with the Girl-With-the-Dinosaur-in-her-Backyard?!  Heather was one of those people who, throughout university I knew who she was (lots of people did) but she didn't know me.  If it seems like I'm painting her with a Scarlet Letter in reputation, let me back up. Her dad was the wildly successful coach of the Dinos Football team (he is now in the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame!) and so many people knew Heather as the coach's daughter.  Apparently this moniker helped her cut the line at many a nightclub back in the day - all the ex-football player bouncers knew her -  so it's unfortunate I didn't know her better then!

Heather and I met at Nick's Steakhouse.  We were both working there as servers during the end of our Education degrees.  There were a small group of us who became friends while working there together and eventually Heather was my first.......roommate!  Well, sort of - we initially moved out together with a third girl who turned out to be.....um.....wacky?  (Is that a PC and sensitive term?)  No matter, we worked around her because we were happy in our 100+ year old house in Sunnyside.  It was undoubtedly a firetrap but it survived our Hat Party and Boxer Short Party during the year we lived there.  Eventually we moved to Parkdale, where I lived with Heather for another year and a half while both threw ourselves into our first years of teaching.

What to tell you about Heather?  Well, from living with her I can tell you that she is a night-owl but then that girl can sleep!  It was more than once that I got a call at my school, from someone at her school wondering where she was.  Colleagues were combing her drive route, thinking she must be in a ditch while she actually slept soundly through her blazingly loud alarm.  Other Fun Facts?  She was (is?) the Martha Stewart of my social circles.  Heather loves to cook and entertain and the way she decorates her house and especially her table for all occasions certainly puts my flowered napkins from Costco to shame!  She's "all-in" for any sort of theme party too and has lost hours of her life sewing (usually at the very last minute) some intricate costume for Halloween or the like.

Heather is a woman of very few words.  HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa........ actually, she is famous for her stories.  Often she will say out loud that she has lost her place and has actually become bored of telling a particular story herself.  She went on some fun travel excursions in her youth (aren't we STILL in our youths?!) and has been through some less-fun "grown up" excursions since then.  All of our experiences make us who we are, though, and Heather has many a wise word to say about much of it.  She is open to sharing.  (Even though she would say "ompen" to sharing - a pronunciation she literally can't get her lips around and so a harmless point of teasing over the years.)

I believe busy people generally like to be busy and Heather fits this description.  She and her kids are all active with family, sports and school.  Heather juggles home and career in Calgary and during her "vacations" in the Shuswap spends much of her time at the family cabin swinging a hammer or hauling something from point A to point B.  She is a hands-on girl with an awesome work ethic.

It was wonderful to get to spend the evening with her tonight over fabulous food and flowing wine. Even though I'm not sure I got to say much!  ;)  <3

Cup 35 - Leslie

August 24, 2014

I am honoured to get to write about one of the most wise, amazing and resilient women I know.  I visited Leslie in her beautiful home this morning; the first time I had been there in....well, while I'm not exactly sure, it had been over ten years, for sure.  I hadn't seen Les in over six.  She had sent me a photo Christmas card last year with a short message about how she wished our lives were "lived a little closer together".  I remember wishing the same thing.  I'm guilty to report that it took my hearing about some challenging circumstances happening with her family (this is an understatement) for me to properly get back in touch.

While the intent of this post is not to headline the struggles Les and her family are facing, I do want to briefly put it out there, as many of you will know Leslie and will want to keep them in your thoughts and prayers.  I also know she is open to sharing the story.  Currently, their eldest daughter, Maddie, is battling cancer following the removal of tumours from her brain.  This is on top of Maddie's autism diagnosis several years back, as well as other serious health matters for Leslie herself, and one of their twin daughters too.  If you would like to know more about Maddie's courageous fight (she is a smart, talented and overall AMAZING girl!) please, follow this link to her story.  (Finding the first Journal entry - a few pages back - will reset the story of her journey back to the beginning.  Huh - I had never connected the words Journal and Journey together until right now...)

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/maddiefriesen/journal

Thinking about Leslie (and her family:  Dave, Maddie, Nate, Sally and Ella) I almost don't know where to begin or what details to share.  There are so many.  And they're all wonderful details as they are all wonderful people.  Seriously.  I walked into their big, beautiful kitchen this morning to realize Dave's same, smiling face and upbeat persona (he likes to point out a few of his grey hairs but, honestly who would ever notice, it's his infectious nature that is most present.  It's Les' nature too.)  It was only 9am and she had already baked homemade scones, prepared a huge bowl of strawberries and was ready to decorate my coffee with Bailey's Irish Cream.  (I accepted!)

Dave left for the hospital while, over the next three hours (which flew by), Leslie I and caught up by reminiscing old times and about common friends.  I got to meet her other three children (all fantastic people) and, when the time was all said and done, left in awe that she had been more sincerely interested to hear about my vanilla life considering everything she must have on her mind at all times!

Les and I went to the same high school but only knew each other as acquaintances.  It wasn't until my second year of teaching that we were paired together on a grade six team at an Airdrie middle school.  Thus began a relationship that was the root of so many others (I have already written about Diane, Brandi, Sarah....all people I became connected to because of Leslie and, of course, there are many, many more!)  We taught together for 4 years until she and Dave successfully adopted Maddie. During that time, though, she connected me to Country Hills Community Church.  And while that particular church has since merged with another, and I no longer attend, it all culminated in being an extremely significant eight years of my life.  Leslie was the foundation and I am forever grateful for all the experiences and people who have contributed to my repertoire of who I am today.

Leslie is a beautiful person, through and through.  She is gorgeous on the outside but this extends a thousand-fold to the inside.  She would literally do anything for anyone.  She is genuinely interested in everyone!  She has an amazing faith and is so matter-of-fact and open when she talks about it. Everything about her is natural.  I admire all of these traits and would love to emulate more of them.

I did have to laugh, when reading a recent journal post Les wrote now that Maddie's home for a stint, where she called herself that "good-enough-girl" (in reference to being worried about sterilizing items needed for Maddie's care).  This might be the one definite thing we have in common.  I love that it describes her because if Les can get away with being a good-enough-girl then that gives me all the more ammunition to continue!  (I write this for the benefit of my perfectionist husband who cannot stand that I subscribe to, "Sometimes good is good enough, Derek!")

It's unfortunate that tough times are often the ones to reunite friends.  Blessed am I that our reunion leaves me overflowing with the memories of wonderful times and the inspiration of incredible people.

Cup 34 - Brandi

August 18, 2014

Born only one day after me (well, okay - four years and one day after me) Brandi and I share a Scorpio status.   Not that either of us really subscribe to the astrological world; we certainly have better things in common than November.  Things like our careers, our elevated status of family, an affection for dogs, clothes, cards and Grey's Anatomy.  We had lunch today on the patio at Joey's Crowfoot (did I mention an affection for good food?) and, seeing as she has lived in Kelowna for...eight?!....years already, it was great to get to see her today.  Life had somehow been happening and we let a few years pass between conversations.  Today's was a great one though.  I knew it would be.

Brandi and I met for the very first time when she was substitute teaching for my teaching partner, in my team teaching classroom, back in 1998.  Having just moved here from Edmonton, she and her husband Corey arrived to work in ministry with youth and I was drawn to their vision.  Over the next several years I joined them as a volunteer in a youth group and eventually as general manager of a youth centre.  We spent a lot of time together, working with young people but we also carved out time, just for our friendship.  We'd walk, we'd talk, we'd meet at the gym where I would put in a half-hearted effort.  We'd see movies or watch fluff on TV.  We went on a couple road trips while she still lived in Calgary and then, after they moved to Chicago and then the Okanagan, Brandi and Corey's home address would become my single girl's road trip destination.

Boy, that last paragraph covered a lot!  Basically from 1998 to 2007 and several thousand kilometers.  Two children were even born!  I don't really feel like I need to share all of our secrets to convey that Brandi was (IS!) an important person in my life.  What is important is the bond we formed; this doesn't require detailed explanations of the past!  She and I were friends during some formative years and life's circumstance separated our proximity and eventually the amount of time we spent talking or together.  No matter.  People talk all the time about how "real friends"are ones who you can pick right up with after any amount of time and Brandi and I are cliche that way. Thank goodness!  

Over the past few years we had gotten out of touch I had thought about Brandi and her family a lot (and OFTEN wished she would post more to FaceBook!).  I have since learned there have been lots of celebrations, a few struggles and challenges and that she is still very much the same open, warm, kind woman.  She is an incredible mom, wife, daughter and sister, is excelling in her career (if the BC gov't would ever just recognize their teachers appropriately so that she could get back to her important work) and, since I last saw her about 7 years ago, hasn't aged a day!   I hope that's something Scorpios have in common.  Oh yeah, if we believed in that stuff... 

Cup 33 - Steve

August 7, 2014

Kind of funny that "Cup 32" was about a friend I first met when she was "just a kid" in Youth Group and now "Cup 33" is about a friend I knew when he and I were BOTH kids in Youth Group. Ah......Youth....

Actually, I'm not sure Steve and I actually MET in Youth Group. But we did spend lots of time together there, running around the United Church basement in Cochrane and asking one of our leaders to "show us again" that he didn't have a bellybutton.  (SO freaky!  It had been sewn over after a surgery.)  Ah...Memories....

Another fun one is that Steve and I were in the same grade 7 homeroom.  There were 35 students in the class, only 3 of them boys!  During our Social Studies unit on government, as a class we had a very Survivor-esque assignment.  I think it was called Stranded!  Or Shipwrecked?!  No! MAROONED!!  (Don't you just love my stream-of-consciousness blogging!)  The premise is that the 35 of us were stranded on a deserted island and together we had to come up with all of our own rules and laws to form a new society.  You can imagine the scenarios us 32 girls were forced to concede given only 3 males with whom to ensure the survival of all mankind!  And all of these polygamist decisions made while we were all only 12 years old.  Not sure a class would get away with that now. Come to think of it, that teacher "retired" kind of early. Heard the poor guy owns a Tim Hortons now.  Hope he isn't suffering from his decision to leave Education...

Steve is a social beast and it's the BEST!  I had the honour to plan our 25 year High School Reunion with Steve and three other alumni.  Steve was a maniac when it came to tracking down old classmates.  He made phone calls to cities across the country and I'm pretty sure he just showed up on a few doorsteps.  His ticket selling success rate was second to none.  Funny that, after literally 15 months of planning, on the day of the reunion we called him when he was 30 minutes late for setting up and he was at the wrong community hall.  Guess he missed THAT detail during all his Googling! 

Steve, today, is a life-long learner who - even after having achieved both success and promotion with Canada Post - is back at school adding to his repertoire.  More important than career is his beautiful family which includes a wife, two great kids and two lazy dogs (at least those are the pictures of them he shares.)  Steve is active in his neighbourhood and in his kids' schools. He's an avid sports fan and has his finger on the pulse of the city, in general.   He can ALWAYS be counted on for a witty retort as his sense of humour is famous (at least, to me.)  Knowing him as a grown-up now, his heart for people is very evident.  That is probably his greatest quality.  His sincere heart for people.  And while he might try to make a joke about that, it's not a laughing matter.  Just a matter of fact.  We had coffee at a small shop in Hillhurst this morning and he recognized the barrista as a former neighbour from years back and struck up some banter. He later texted me from the Bottle Depot where he had run into a current neighbour - albeit one of the Calgary Flames (yeah, an NHLer at a bottle depot, you read it right) - but it's all just further proof that Steve knows  and remembers everyone!  Super glad he knows me!  (I WAS one the wives in his fictional, 1983 harem after all!)