Saturday, August 02, 2008

Long overdue

It's safe to say that my postings have been lacking.  What can I say, I'm a busy guy.  However, I am enjoying my last day of vacation before I start on the Medicine Ward service at LBJ.

So where to start.  It's been a busy summer.  I am now a fully licensed physician and hoping to be able to start moonlighting in September.

I think Facebook may well be THE greatest invention since sliced bread.  I have been able to reconnect with many friends from high school and college.  Most recently, I have found a dear friend of mine from middle school and high school.  Courtney Hailey!

Courtney and I met in middle school choir.  We were fortunate enough to be able to go to Vienna, Austria with our high school choir when we were freshman.  That's really where the friendship took off.  Her mom also went on the trip and made sure that we got the full experience.

I lost contact with Courtney sometime right after my freshman year of college.  So it's been AT LEAST 10 years since we've talked.  I tried to find her when Beth and I got married, but to no avail.

Anyway, another friend from Cooper H.S., Tim, found me on Facebook.  We started talking and I asked him with whom he had kept in contact.  As it turns out, Courtney was one of those people!!!  After some delay, we finally talked this past week.  It was SO GOOD to talk to her.  I actually talked to her mom first.  Then, got her cell phone number and sent her a text message.

I made her play 20 questions to guess who I was!!!  It was CLASSIC!  She tried to call me after asking like 2 questions b/c it was driving her crazy.  The great thing about that is, since I got the new iPhone, I hadn't set up my voicemail.  The message was still the generic, "You have reached 713-xxx-xxxx. The person you are trying to reach..." SO SHE STILL HAD NO IDEA WHO I WAS!

Since I didn't give in and answer, she HAD to play!  It took her 9 questions to figure out it was me!  She asked very good questions.  Her last question was, "Is this Jeremiah Brown? (that's what she called me)  Instead of answering her with a text, I called.

It was GREAT!!   The reason behind this little scheme goes back to the 7th grade.  According to those around me, I think I threw THE party of the 7th grade.  I was Captain Oblivious back then (still am, really) so I had no idea at the time.

Anyway, Courtney was invited. Duh! and she kept talking about her friend "Vera" that she was bringing to the party.  We didn't go to school with anyone named "Vera" and IT DROVE ME CRAZY for WEEKS!!!  I had NO CLUE who was going to show up to this party with my "friend" Courtney.

The night of the party came and Courtney showed up.  Turns out her "friend" Vera was...






wait for it 







are you ready for this...?






an ALOE VERA PLANT!!!   Absolutely HILARIOUS!!!  I don't remember when I've laughed so hard as that night.

Unfortunately, Vera met an untimely end when the family moved to Tyler.  Someone dropped her and broke her roots and she died.  But I never forgot the TORTURE that Courtney inflicted on me over than plant.

So the 20 questions was a little payback.  Yes, that was 19.5 years ago (MAN am I getting old!), but well worth the wait!

I may have said this before, but my personality is one that makes friends easily, and for life.  It can be a bit of a curse, but I cherish friendship more than just about anything in this life.  Case-in-point: I still know and talk to my 3rd grade teacher.  I sang at her wedding and she and her family drove from Abilene to Guthrie for my wedding.  I just remembered, I drew a picture of her in the 5th grade when she was pregnant with Sarah.  What possessed me???  Only God knows.  I still keep up with Eric...my first and best friend in Abilene.  There are MANY others over the course of the past 22 years (that's when we moved to Abilene) that I still keep up with.

It's who I am.

I have been blessed richly.

One of my favorite movies is "The Shawshank Redemption."  In it, Morgan Freeman it talking about the time after Tim Robbins breaks out of the prison.  He says,

" I guess I just miss my friend."

Courtney, I have missed you and I am glad that we are reconnected.  You and your mom helped shape who I am (as have many others).  Get yourself an email address and stay in touch.  That's an order!  Michelle, it was an absolute joy to hear your voice again.  You guys call when you go to Abilene...we'll see what we can do to meet you.

OK:  Beth and I are going to see John Mayer tonight and I need to get some things done.

Thanks for reading.