San Diego Bounceback

I took a trip down memory lane last weekend as I returned to what I call my hometown, San Diego. In high school, I was a part of the pageantry corps - flags and dance. Call it what you want, but we totally rocked. We had competitions. We won trophies! Trophies that I actually still have. It was an awesome group of girls and I made some lifelong friends out of the whole thing. Generally, I go down to San Diego once a year to visit some of my friends that I've had since 6th grade, but this last weekend was a little bit more than that. There was a pageantry reunion, and the plan was to go see a real live spring competition where the current pageantry members from my old high school were performing. My friend J, who was practically my first friend when I moved to San Diego, was hosting this soiree.

It was so amazing to see everyone after all this time. So incredibly amazing. Us pageantry girls together again. It's like no time had passed at all. Except a lot of us were married and some of us have kids. It's hard to find friends like that...ones that you almost forgot you had. And so great to get back in touch because, well, it's just nice to have friends, right? Anyway, it was so great. And at the competition, you could have seen us all go a little bit nuts and get excited when we saw that our old instructor was a judge at this competition. Talk about a blast from the past! I think he was a little shocked himself.

I have to thank J who put it all together, and I look forward to doing it every year! Not to mention the margaritas and carnitas - to die for. Anyway, here we are all together (hopefully more can come next year!):


And speaking of blasts from the past...while I was waiting at the airport to fly to San Diego, one of my college friends saw me sitting around waiting for my flight. That was so exciting! Congrats, Stace! You said you read this, so I had to give you a shout out. You are going to be a terrific mother.

On my plane ride home I had the pleasure of sitting by six older women who had been friends their whole life. I was in the window, and two of them were sitting next to me. It was so fun to listen to their conversation...they had been friends forever. One of the women didn't like to fly, so the turbulence made her a bit uncomfortable. Before I knew this, she had asked me if I was attending college in San Diego. Well, I laughed out loud at that one! Um, actually I graduated college about ten years ago, but a nice compliment none-the-less. When the turbulence hit, she was nervous, and I noticed that she was holding her friends hand. So, me not liking to fly much either, I told her this and said she could hold my hand too if she wanted. And she grabbed it. Quite hard. I talked a bit to her about my family and in the end, she told me I was a very sweet person for holding her hand. Believe me, I needed it, too!

I think this trip taught me a lot about friendships. People you've known forever...ten years...or even ten minutes. Kindness and caring mean the world, and without it, I'm not sure where I would be. Thank you, to all of my friends out there. I love you so very much...