Old friends

Apparently this is the summer of reconnecting with old friends.  And I love it.  Last week we had dinner with the Hollingshauses.  Wade was Adam were mission companions (twice) in Finland and Wade and Jennine lived in the same ward as we did when we were young married couples at BYU.  We had our first babies while living in that ward together.

After all these years, we met up at their house.  Wade is the department chair of the theater department at BYU and Jennine is a make-up artist.  (They met in the BYU Theater Department way back when.)  She also works on Studio C.  She is responsible for the prosthetics and other fanciness.  It was really fun to catch up with them and hear about what they've done in the passing years and about their children.  (Emma and their son knew a lot of the same theater people.)

Some people are just really comfortable to pick up with where you left off.

Adam and Wade enjoyed reminiscing about their missions.  They spoke more Finnish than I've heard Adam speak in years and years.  They talked about towns and people and places they remembered.  Adam brought some pictures to show that his mom sent him just recently.  Coincidentally they were of his time with Wade.  Wade pulled out his photo album and we looked at pictures of Adam and Wade.  A very young Adam and Wade.

They reminded each other of things they had forgotten.  For example, Wade reminded Adam about the time he wrote a Dear John letter to one of the missionaries in their district in the MTC.  Adam was responsible for picking up the mail so he talked them into canceling his letter at the post office and he delivered it to the elder.  Except it was a Dear John from his parents.  According to the letter Adam had written posing as this poor guy's parents, they were going to move on and thought he should do the same.  When the missionary returned, they said, they could see how it was going and if they were really meant to be an eternal family.

And I guess the kid didn't realize it was a joke at first.  (Didn't he recognize it was not the right handwriting?  I don't know.)

Also, when they were in the mission office together in Helsinki, Adam wrote a letter posing as an area authority (which seems like a naughty thing to do!) and in the letter he said that he (the area authority) was going to be touring the mission and he wanted this certain elder to be his tour guide.  This elder was just about to go home and would have to extend his mission if he accepted the assignment.

Wade said they showed the mission president (who was also a jokester) and the mission president, with a gleam in his eye, wanted to be the one to deliver the letter to the unsuspecting elder.  He agonized about the decision before they finally told him it wasn't real.

These stories about Adam don't surprise me in the least.  I knew him back then.

It's really fun to get together with other people who knew him back then too.

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Yesterday morning I woke up with sore hips and a sore knee (the same dumb knee I hurt a few years ago).  Then I remembered I was going to see Stephanie.  She is a wizard and fixes me.

She showed up in her jeep with the top off because that is just Stephanie in a nutshell.  She said, "I forgot my razor.  Can I shave my legs?"

It makes me happy to have the kind of friends that are kind of like sisters and you lead them through your house to your bathroom and produce a disposable razor and it's the most normal thing in the world.

Stephanie and I have logged so much friendship time together that anytime we're together is a treat and any favor we ask each other is considered done.

We went to our neighborhood breakfast and I rode in the jeep.  Scott said we looked like Thelma and Stephanie Barbies.  I told Stephanie that the jeep made me feel like I'm a lot cooler than I am.

After we'd withstood all the heat and sunshine we could at the breakfast we retreated back here for the AC.  I lay on the floor and Stephanie killed me massaged me while I writhed on the floor.  She is so tiny but so very strong!  And she completely fixed my messed up muscles.

She'll be back to Utah in a few weeks and we promised each other a walk (preferably early morning).  I told her to bring her dog Squire who we used to walk with every day.  He's an old friend too.