Da Goddess

Of Christmas and Life Past

Yesterday, while out shopping with my son and my mom, I ran into a former neighbor of mine.

Debbie and I had lived across from each other a million years ago. We spent three great years celebrating holidays, and any other occasion we could think of, together. Her family was my family. My family and roommates were hers.

I remember her son at age nine. The Enya song Orinoco Flow was always sung at the top of our lungs for Danny. But, because he was a youngster, we used his words and not the real ones. "Sail away" became "Save a whale" and the song is forever etched in my mind as such. He also used to do some funky little reggae moves for us. We always had a good time. One year, for his birthday or Christmas, I forget which, I bought him a set of E.B. White books. Those were my favorites and together we'd practice his reading. He's now 22. I feel very old.

Debbie and I had lost touch over the years. The last time I saw her, we were both pregnant. Now, we're both parents of 10 year olds! She has another younger boy, as do I. She lives in North Carolina, while I'm in California.

Tomorrow night we'll get together, have a drink, and reminisce. I'm bringing up David, the Kiwi, that she dated. Oh.....I do plan on bringing up that she didn't know that the sun rose in the east and set in the west for her physics final. That's a must! And, she'll tease me about my boyfriends of the time. Hell, she remembers when the ex and I lived together just as roommates!

I'll also bring up the night we went to a gospel performance (one of her friends was performing), had drinks at the Rusty Pelican with a former substitute teacher of mine, went to see a band at the Belly Up Tavern, got invited to a party, and then ended up running around the beach barefoot. Believe it or not, that all happened on one December night in 1989. That seems so long ago!

One of the best things about Debbie is that we were really great friends. We could talk about anything and everything. We went places and saw things. I learned a lot from her and she learned a lot from me.

Christmas with her and her family was always interesting. Most of the food was authentic Italian. Manicotti, pasta fagioli, cannoli. It was all wonderful! None of that Olive Garden fare. No. This was incredible stuff! The days leading up to Christmas would be filled with the wrapping of gifts over there. Snyder, Aunt Diane's cat, often bore the brunt of my attentions. I'd stick little pieces of tape on his paws. I'm sorry.....that's just so freakin' entertaining! Poofer and Nikki, the dogs, would also get a little tape, but they were so blas\x{00E9} about the whole affair that it just did nothing but waste tape.

I'm pretty excited to be getting together with Debbie again. We've both changed so much. She's no longer teaching. She worked at a prison. I married and then un-married my former roommate. I'm a nurse now. Danny's going out for a drink with us. That'll be interesing. Sigh. I still can't believe he's old enough to drink alcohol.

I'm sure this Ghost of Christmas Past will prove to be an eye opener. That's how these things go, right?

Well, I'm off to finish wrapping a couple of gifts for my son's teachers.

Have a good one!

Posted by DaGoddess at December 19, 2002 11:21 PM