SharivilleLife stories from Shari

Another exceptional day.  Today we started out with breakfast at ” Biscuits,”  had really good corn beef and eggs.  Then we  drove back up to Sherman to visit Joy Jones and to have a wonderful dinner with her and her daughter Tammy and husband Chris and lovely daughter Jordan…Tammy cooked “the best” spaghetti and meat balls and sweet Italian sausage.  This girl can cook. 

We felt so privileged to be invited to their home for dinner.  We had never met Joy’s daughter and family and it was so special that she took the time to entertain her mom’s friends. It was above the call of duty.  After having spent one of the best afternoons I can remember I truly understand her generosity.  These folks are just special people.  Joy has a very special relationship with Tammy, just as I do with Angie,  It’s so nice to see that, so I understand the connection.  Joy has lots of love and support from Tammy and her family. We are both very lucky daughters.

We took Teddy along for the visit so he could have a “play date,”  with Joy’s little Missy.  At first Teddy didn’t know how to act with Missy  bouncing around him.  He quickly caught on and they did play with gusto for sometime.  Enough to tire each other out.  I think Teddy met more than his match. It was fun to see these two play. 

Tammy has a lovely home and without a doubt I think she has the most extensive collection of Precious Moments figurines I have ever seen in one place.  They are of course beautiful.  She has a flair for decorating and has lots of American Indian decorations in their home. Both Joy and Tammy are very talented ladies craft wise.  Tammy showed me the quilt she is making for daughter Jordan, gorgeous.  Speaking of Jordan we got to see some tapes of her singing.  Give her a couple years to get a little older, she’s only 16, and she will be ready for American Idol.  I couldn’t get enough of her singing, they ran out of tapes.  So she’s not just a lovely young lady, but a talented one too. She’s very active in her church youth groups.

We had a great visit and it was hard to say goodbye  to Joy this time knowing I would not see her again now until Sept when she drives out with Missy for our 50th class reunion.  She promises to stay with us for awhile when she comes out.  I haven’t  known  Joy long but we will be firends for life now.  I already miss her.

Good friends are hard to find and then sometimes hard to hang onto.  I have found a good friend in Joy Jones.  She came to me via Judy Lou back home when Jerry was stricken with the bad news of another heart surgery. Judy Lou has spent the last several years trying to keep the class of 60 together and united, so she was up on the fact that Joy lived in a near by town.  Joy  and I went to school together in Chico and she will be coming out for our 50th class reunion in Sept.  We do not remember each other from high school, but we had a big class.  Joy was so supportive of us with Jerry’s heart surgery and I think she was an angel sent in disguise.  So I am not going to lose track of her.  She and I have really got a lot  in common and think alike on a lot of things.  I am thankful for her friendship.

Thurs. Jerry and I  drove up to Sherman where  Joy lives for a visit and to go to lunch.  Its about 60 miles north of here.  It was drizzling rain, but rain never bothers me.  It was a nice drive to someplace we have never been and that’s what we are all about.  We are here for a reason, an unplanned one, but here.  We are going to take advantage of these adventures, you only have one go round here and I want to see and do it all.   We went to lunch at The Olive Garden, had my favorite, fetachini alfredo, Jerry had his favorite spaghetti and meatballs and Joy had her fav lasagna.  It was a good lunch and a very good visit.  We returned to Joy’s house for coffee and to visit with her precious pup, Missy. She is the cutest little girl, only 10 mos old and a ball of energy.  I can see why Joy loves her so much. 

Joy is also the craft person of all time and she makes the most beautiful jewelry.  She really has a flair for color co ordination.  She also does silk embroidery, very fine work.  We visited for a couple of hours and then had to leave so we could get back to the Metroplex before dark, which we did.  It was a really nice drive, and a good visit with a friend I have come to greatly appreciate and love.  She is also a face book buddy and a computer fan.

One of the best parts of being best friends is that it is forever.  Time and distance doesn’t matter.  That’s the way it is with Liz and I.  We can be separated by time and distance and when we get together it’s like we just saw each other the other day, when in fact when she flew into Dallas on Fri it had been 4 plus mos. since we had been together. Liz has actually been at my house in Chico house sitting for us. We are so grateful for her.  Sooooooooo while she was here we visited at a furious rate. Is there ever enough time?  We had to schedule rest times just to keep going.  Tommy and Angie,  bless their hearts, planned some  fun stuff for us all while she was here.

Sat night they took us all to Medieval Times for dinner and tournament.  Liz has never been, so it was a new experience for her.  Liz is all into new experiences. Tommy must have been too, or he was really really thirsty. The food was wonderful, as usual, despite the fact that one must eat with fingers only.  What fun that was.  I looked over at Liz as roasted chicken juice dripped from her fingers, and the glass holding the soda became pretty slippery, all the  while flying spears and axes flew in the arena.  We rooted vigorously for our knight in shinning armour ( the Yellow Knight), but alas,  he was defeated by an even shinier Knight.

Sun afternoon Angie took Liz on a tour of Tommy’s shop, always an experience, since there is always such a diverse variety of characters  hanging out there. She learned how cars and trucks are wrapped, it just happened that this week end was a training weekend for Tommy, he had seven students in attendance, two guys there all the way from northern Canada.  Tommy teaches his craft once a month.  After the tour we all went to Pappadeaux Cajun restaurant for some awesome food.  We dropped by Felecia’s apartment, so Liz could see how cute she has it decorated.  Then we were off to what was suppose to be a video shoot that did not turn out.  The hotel where the shoot was suppose to take place refused to let them video shoot a Hip Hop Video there, they found this out at the last minute. , so Liz didn’t get to sit in on an MTV video shoot.  She did get to meet some of the major players tho. Money Militia and Cas-ualle was there.

Mon night Angie and Liz and I went to Texas de Brazil, my favorite place ever,  there we dined most finely on some sumptious presentations.  The salad bar is fab and the Gauchos stroll throughout the  restraunt with huge hunks of meat on skewers, to be sliced at request onto your plate.  Some of us had to have thirds on the house special, a wonderfully seasoned top sirloin roast.  I of course went for the lamb, both roast and chops. The desserts are to die for. And so we rolled out of there more than fully satisified.  Liz reported she was to full to sleep that night.

Tues. during the day Jerry, Liz and I went to old downtown Grapevine, a really special little town, restored, with wonderful little shops and quaint little restraunts, we ate lunch at the French Bakery, I was going to imprision Liz at the old jail, just to keep her here longer.

Tues night was girls night out at Angie’s spa, and it was held at The Melting Pot, I have never done fondue before and it was great fun.  We had wonderful tasting martini’s, like Gummy Bear and Lemon drop.  We had traditional fondue to start with chunks of french bread and veggies.  Then a truly tasty smoked duck, spring greens  salad, followed by the meat and veggie course.  Its a cook your own and it really was fun.  There was chicken, teriyaki beef , pork, shrimp and raviolis and lots of the most delightful sauces to accompany the meat and veggies, like broccoli, mushrooms and potatoes……But the piece de resistance of course was the chocolate fondue dessert, thick rich heath bar chocolate accompanied by strawberries, bananas, marshmallows, pound cake and cheese cake, just begging to be dipped into that chocolate and popped into my mouth.   A delightful ending to the time spent in Texas by Liz.  We did have a good visit, there’s never enough time to spend with best friends.

Let me tell you bout my best  friend, sounds like the beginning of a song from an old TV series, for those that remember? I think Eddie’s Father.  My best friends name is Kathy, and our friendship goes back 40 yrs.  During those 4 0 yrs we have built up quite a history and raised a daughter. She was always there for support and advice and love. And now it’s Christmas and we are separate by thousands of miles, due to a medical emergency with Jerry, me here in Texas and she in Chico.  I miss her terribly, I miss the comfort of knowing she’s nearby and that I will see her in the next few days to celebrate the holidays. I miss picking up the phone just to chat, I miss hearing about her canine family, Ginger and Suzy, I miss hearing about George’s newest project.  I just miss my best friend.

I went to work for Kathy as a waitress in her restaurant, Studio Inn, when Angie was a toddler.  those were difficult times for us.  I was in the process of canceling Angie’s father’s contract, divorce, and money just wasn’t there.  The IRS was all about attaching my paycheck for back taxes my X owed, simply because I was apparently easier to find.  Kathy and her family took me under their wing and by ” hook or by crook,” the IRS got paid off.  They paid for uniforms I couldn’t afford and were just there for us esp Kathy.

I worked for Kathy all the while I was in LVN school, she gave me a schedule for work that got it all done.  She was there for support while I went through RN school and training.  She took over parental duties of my daughter while I had to leave town for 2 summers for training.  She was there for her to take care of the mom stuff that Jerry wasn’t up to.  Angie considers Kathy her Godmother.  Thank you Kathy for the good influence you had on Angie.  I couldn’t find a better person to share her with.

How do I cover 40 yrs, I can’t do it here. Our plan was to grow old together, take fun and interesting trips to everywhere.  We did manage to squeeze in a few trips and many many social parties and dinners, including our husbands, Jerry and George , of course.  We spent time cooking for one another, Kathy is a chef  by profession, so guess who got the better deal there.  She was always there though for cooking advice and tips when I needed them.  I can’t remember how many times I had to inquire about what went into that “shrimp salad”  that Jerry was so fond of.  I seemed to have mental block there. Kathy was the only friend I ever had who cooked for me.  We went to car shows, casino’s and the openings of all the newest restaurants around.  My mind reels from all the fun things we did. We went to concerts and enjoyed all the 50’s and 60’s music together, and best of all we were ELVIS fans from the word go.  We were both lucky enough to have gotten a real actual lip to lip kiss from the King himself. All through the years we have had fun seeing who could give who the newest Elvis trivia present.  Kathy has made sure I have every single recording Elvis ever made, and I brought her back memorabilia for Graceland in Memphis when we were there.

A few yrs ago all 4 of us started noticing changes in Kathy, me the medical person esp.  There was some occas slurring in speech and slight unsteady walking and slower to do tasks.  Finally there was just no way to deny it anymore.  I forced her Dr. to give her an MRI and getting no help or satisfaction from him, I got her into see one of the north state’s best neurologist’s. He with the help of specialists in San Francisco finally diagnosed Kathy with a very rare neurological disease know as Cortical Basilar Degeneration. It’s terminal and progressively debilitating.  she’s losing the ability to use her body and her speech.  Her mind is sharp and she has good long term memory, she is losing her short term memory, and is now unable to walk without major assistance.  Kathy was recently admitted into a full care home, as the time had come where George could not handle the necessary care she was requiring.  It’s a lovely home, but not her home. Kathy always has a smile on her face even though she is fully aware of her situation.  I have only seen her cry twice in my life, once when her mother died and the night she and I packed her belongings to move the next day to the care home.  She cried for her house so wonderful, designed by her, she cried for her dogs left behind, she cried for her life slipping away without her control and no ability to stop it and all the things planned that would never be. And she cried to leave her soul mate, and only love of her life , George.

As I grow older I realize more and  more how important true friendships  are, they have to be relationships made in heaven, and there are not a lot of them,  Kathy and I have a spiritual connection.   She has always been there for me through thick and through thin, for the good times and the not so good times.  She always stood by me and never ever judged me even when she knew I was making a mistake.  She never lectured or turned away from me, she was always there.  Kathy is an extraordinary person person with a sense of humor that won’t quit, she would have to have that to put up with me all these yrs. She always has a smile despite her own situation.  I have never heard her say a bad word about anyone.  Kathy is not just my best friend, she’s my hero.