After the Infamous "Couch" Incident
Well, it was a blow to my pride, but the couch mishap at Shelah's house turned out to be no big deal. I felt so embarrassed and guilty, but the embarrassment has faded somewhat and the guilt faded completely when I found out there was no serious damage to the couch.
Plus, I made some lemonade with the lemons I'd been handed by sending a balloon bouquet to Shelah's house the next day. It just so happened to be her daughter's first birthday, so I used that as an opportunity to thank Shelah for having me over, apologize for the couch and offer to pay for the damage. To say my gesture worked would be an understatement. I'm told the balloons were the hit of Stella's b-day party and everyone was touched by the gesture. Problem solved.
If anything, I think this might have strengthened my friendship with Roxi. That's definitely a good thing. Now we're talking about when we can get together again. (Whenever and wherever it happens, it's going to be somewhere with sturdy seating, I can tell you that!)
And now that I've put that humiliating experience behind me, I actually can reflect on our little reunion. I have to admit that seeing Roxi for the first time in 27 years was kind of strange. I've seen many pictures of her in the past year and a half, and we've talked on the phone and e-mailed a lot, but seeing her in person was different.
It was weird that, as we spoke, I still could see and hear that 10-year-old girl I knew in grade school, yet I also saw a grown woman. Time is a strange thing. I think a part of me was still holding onto those (reasonably) happy days of innocence, and I had turned her into some kind of mythical figure from my past. She's not a mythical figure; she's just a normal person. And that's OK. It's more than OK, because that "normal person" is still pretty darn special.
Plus, I made some lemonade with the lemons I'd been handed by sending a balloon bouquet to Shelah's house the next day. It just so happened to be her daughter's first birthday, so I used that as an opportunity to thank Shelah for having me over, apologize for the couch and offer to pay for the damage. To say my gesture worked would be an understatement. I'm told the balloons were the hit of Stella's b-day party and everyone was touched by the gesture. Problem solved.
If anything, I think this might have strengthened my friendship with Roxi. That's definitely a good thing. Now we're talking about when we can get together again. (Whenever and wherever it happens, it's going to be somewhere with sturdy seating, I can tell you that!)
And now that I've put that humiliating experience behind me, I actually can reflect on our little reunion. I have to admit that seeing Roxi for the first time in 27 years was kind of strange. I've seen many pictures of her in the past year and a half, and we've talked on the phone and e-mailed a lot, but seeing her in person was different.
It was weird that, as we spoke, I still could see and hear that 10-year-old girl I knew in grade school, yet I also saw a grown woman. Time is a strange thing. I think a part of me was still holding onto those (reasonably) happy days of innocence, and I had turned her into some kind of mythical figure from my past. She's not a mythical figure; she's just a normal person. And that's OK. It's more than OK, because that "normal person" is still pretty darn special.