Some Years Are Just so Great!!

In 2008, I was turning forty eight. The year was full of friends, fun and firsts.  My father was turning seventy five and I was not able to travel to Florida to celebrate, so I organized a "card" party to surprise him. With the help of many, I was able to shower him with over fifty birthday cards and lots of well wishes from those who live in his community.  He was so surprised by all the attention and had no idea I was the one who organized this.  

In my attempt to pull this off, I reached out to people he had worked with at General Motors as well as those he played golf with and ran the Monday night Bingo, I reunited with a "child" of one of my father's co-workers.  Her father worked with my Dad and they often came to the cottage over the years.   She was four when I first met her, I was fourteen and I often babysat her when our parents went snowmobiling. 

Cindy, Karie & Christopher

After I married Killer, I would make plans to pick her up to take her and Worm roller skating. She was two years younger than Worm and both had challenging  childhoods. I had not seen her in years and often wondered what happened to her.  Her parents had shown up at my brother's funeral, but I didn't have much time to visit. My  parents did and had secured their email.  Dad had shared with me the card and letter he had received from their daughter and I reconnected with her soon after.

She was living in Arkansas and attending college.  She was thirty eight years old and had a nine year old son. She was struggling. After we had spoken a few times, I suggested she come visit me in Indiana.  She didn't have transportation  to make the journey, so I rented her a car and she and her son came to spend Spring Break with me.

Jewelry Show

Her son, Christopher was such a charmer and we grew very close that week.  He learned as all children around me do, if I say some thing, I mean it.  He and I had a week of challenges as he knew how to wrap his mom around his finger,  but not Cindy. The first day they arrived, they had driven straight through and she was tired.  I took Christopher out for lunch to get to know him.  His clothes were too short for him, his shoes needed to be replaced, so we went shopping and he got spoiled and I learned all about Pokemon.

I spent the week transforming his mom. I taught her how to coordinate her  clothes, accessorize her wardrobe, updated her makeup and taught her how to do her hair.  She had never had any one spend time with her to show her these simple things.  I knew I had been been successful when Christopher told his mom she "was beautiful."  He had never told her that before and she was so touched by the special attention I had showered both of them with.

Jewelry Show

Our birthdays all fell in the same week, so we got dressed up and went to dinner to celebrate before they headed back home.  By the end of the week, Christopher wanted to know if he could call me Aunt Cindy because he didn't have anyone who cared for him like I had.

In May of that year, I decided to try selling the jewelry I had been making.  My intentions were to just make jewelry for myself, but when ever I wore it, I always had so many compliments, more than when I wore costume jewelry or my own expensive pieces.

I set my garage up for my first show and invited ten to twelve friends over for a trunk show.  I was so surprised when I sold over fifteen hundred dollars, that I started to think I might consider selling this in other avenues, but I had no idea what to do or how to go about it, plus the recession was hitting so not many were interested in spending money. If I was going to do this, I had to be smart about it.

Bus trip to Chicago

I had many firsts as well, I was invited to join friends at a new restaurant that had not opened, but was having friends and family in to "practice" before the doors opened to the public.  I took the train trip to a town north of here for pizza. And I took a bus trip to Chicago with a bunch of women in the

Granite City Opening

insurance industry to spend the day on the million dollar mile. 

I had gone back to see the psychic. The card I had selected was the magician. It meant that all the tools were in front of me to do what I wanted. Mark told me that I was very creative and  was  thinking, analyzing and researching a project that I needed to just do and I'd be successful  I had never mentioned that I was doing all of this over making jewelry.

He told me he saw a large group of friends with me off to the side and they  would accept me now forgiving and forgetting rumors from years ago.  I had no idea what he was talking about, but soon, I'd be attending my thirtieth reunion.  I would reunite with classmates that I had not seen nor spoke to in thirty years. I was hesitant to go alone as I did not have fond memories of high school, but an old friend contacted me through Face book and we agreed we'd go face our demons together.

Having Fun In Chicago

I drove up to Haslett to meet my old friend.  I had not seen him in years, but discovered he had lived across the street from Killer shortly after I moved out and had lived just blocks away when I was living there.  It really is such a small world.

We stayed up all night catching up on the past thirty years. It was as if no time had passed between us.  He really didn't want to go to the reunion, so we made a pact, we'd check  on each other through the night and if either of us felt the urge to leave, we'd go.  We ended up being in the group of the last to leave.

Deb & I reunite

It was an interesting night for both of us.  I reconnected with those that I was close to in school, my partner in crime had driven up to attend as well, she was living in Louisiana at this point in her life. I even faced one of those boys that made my life so miserable in school and he was no different that night, but I was more confident than I had been thirty plus years ago and he didn't stand a chance that night with his crude remarks. It was nice to see others and how we had matured from those days at Dewitt High School

I traded in my car that I had bought just before Bill  died.  I had bought the car on line, it was a 2004 Buick Rendezvous. He was the only man who did not take issue with my purchasing a car without his assistance.  I bought a 2008

Love Note from B

Lincoln MKX and just loved it.  The Henshaw in me came out, I put every piece of chrome on this car imaginable and decked the inside out with any thing you could buy on the market to spruce it up.  It reminded me of Killer and how he would drop so much money into a car making it different than what he bought.

2008 Lincoln

Two thousand and eight was a great year, but one of the best parts? I finally made it to Hawaii.  I needed to use the airline tickets that I had been awarded from my divorce seven years earlier. 
They would expire if I didn't take advantage of them. I had hired a woman a year earlier at work and we hit it off. I wanted to go the week of Thanksgiving and most people are unable to travel that week due to family obligations.  I suggested she go with me to Hawaii, but she had a large family that she'd have to cook for.  I just loved her response, "They can cook their own meal this year." We were on our way to paradise.  Life was good.