kim

Who was your best friend when you were 10? Did you still know him or her when you were 20?

that was 1981.  in 1981, I lived in St. Thomas, surrounded by a ton of kids.  My best friends were boys.  not likely a surprise to anyone who knows me.  we played dinky cars all day.  made roads in robin's mom's garden.  she was not impressed.
when we got yelled at, we would all run to tim's yard until the lady who lived in between the two of our houses would yell at us.
we never went into my house.  I think my mom had a rule about no boys in the house.
smart woman.
occasionally we would all be allowed to swim at ryan's house.  he lived on the other side of me, and sometimes, I would go inside ryan's house with him and we would eat plates of turkey and mayo.  when his parents noticed what we were into we got yelled at.

eventually I learned where the girls in my neighbourhood lived.
kim was the one who captured my heart.  we became fast friends, spending every available minute together roller skating, bike riding, playing leap frog, making awesome barbie sets (which always included a make shift pool, filled with water, and we got yelled at), playing "blind people", having sleepovers and dreaming about boys.  10 was stellar.  kim wrote the most amazing poetry, taught me about salting my apples, put up with my argumentative spirit AND had a waterbed.  whoa! I was supposed to learn my times tables the year we met, but I didn't.  I got caught with a bunch of them written on my hands.  I got yelled at.  kim learned hers.  we also took two years of confirmation classes together, a little later.  our pastor had to settle a lot of petty fights before class could begin.

and here it is: kim and me at 22.  she had recently had another surgery and I was 8 months pregnant.  I took this picture out of my christmas scrapbook.  it's fantastic.  we kind of look like bobble heads, or like we are standing at some weird angle so the top parts of our bodies are in the foreground.  I swear it's all just a perspective issue.
I can imagine just how pleased kim is going to be when she sees it. 
yep.
writing about my friends is going to be my new favourite.