Monday, April 14, 2014

What A DAY!!!

Normally Monday is a workday.

Monday is one of two days a week that I am suppose to be available to the SLO courts to accept appointments for the Conflict-Conflict Public Defender.

I am a private contractor with the organization.

And usually on Mondays I spend most, if not all, of my mornings in court. Lately, it has been late afternoon before I get out of court.

Then I answer phone messages, clear up paperwork, review files, write motions....all that other stuff that I should have gotten done last week.

But today I played hooky. I left The Kid to cover for me and I, well, I drove for 2 hours or so to have lunch.

Kind of a really special lunch.

I got up at 6, left at 8:30 and arrived at 10:50. I sat in the car until 11:15. Then I went into a restaurant in Visalia to meet some really incredible people.

From the Class of '69 I would like you to meet:

The Girls



From left to right (by maiden name): Janice Staton, Patty Imoto, Gael Gisvold, Vicki Boyd and Patty Valenzuela.

I have known these women all of my life. Some of them went to a different grade school from me but I knew who they were even then. In junior high we all came together. We graduated from junior high and high school together.

And some of us hadn't been in contact for over 30 years.

But today all that time didn't matter.

We talked and laughed and shared our stories.

For FOUR HOURS!

It is a darn good thing that the restaurant wasn't crowded!

We all were blessed to be raised in a small town. In a time warp. It was a place where we all felt safe. We all got a fabulous education from very dedicated teachers. Those teachers shaped our lives.

And today we talked about them. We talked about Mr. Feitsma and Mr. Ippolito, Mrs. Woods, Mrs. Staton (no relation to Janice!). We talked about the Hanigans and my attempts to play the piano!

We talked about our lives and the changes that 60 years of living have wrought. 

And we laughed.

Somewhere in there we did eat.

But we just kept talking.

The best lunch. EVER.

Thank you, my friends. 

Thank you.

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