Highs and Lows

When I was in highschool, I belonged to a group of friends dubbed ‘The Naughty Nine’. Despite later joining  a sorority, the Junior League, and the AWA, this unofficial group of girls is still the strongest sisterhood I have ever belonged to. Even though I don’t speak to many of them on a weekly, or even yearly basis, each one of these women is dear to my heart. They are constantly on my mind and daily in my prayers.

I just love them, you know? They are just awesome, interesting, brilliant, hilarious, unique, kind, independent and strong. We all came together our sophomore year, and for a time, we were positively inseparable. But by the time senior year rolled around, sports, high school sweethearts,  jobs, academics, and driver’s licenses were taking us in a million opposite directions.

Still, we made an effort to get together every Friday afternoon at Hub City Diner for fries, milkshakes and a summary of the week’s ‘highs and lows’.  I think I speak for the nine of us when I say that those Friday afternoons were some of the sweetest moments of my high school career. We laughed, cried, and bonded over fried pickles and curly fries.

Every Friday after school, our booth would be there waiting for us, the wait staff knowing that nine naughty naïve girls would soon be filling the Lafayette landmark restaurant with giggles and gossip.

It was a sweet tradition, but inevitably, we all graduated from Lafayette High and spread out throughout the country to go to College. Our lives continued to spin off in several different directions and staying in touch became a sad afterthought compared to our College lives.

One of my biggest regrets about my time at LSU was not continuing to invest in my high school buddies. I was so consumed with sorority life and fraternity boys that I was eager to move forward and let go of high school. My dad warned me that I shouldn’t take my childhood friends for granted. There is something about people who knew you when you were young that just understand you more, because they know your history without you having to explain it. I don’t have to give them background on my relationship with my family, or my love life, or my embarrassing crushes, or my mean girl moments- they were there for it. They were a part of it.

I was lucky enough to go to LSU with two of my girls, even pledging Delta Zeta with a fellow niner, and my best friend Talia and I stayed attached at the hip despite going to school seven hours away from each other.

But even though I didn’t see Megan, Ashley, Abbi, Aimee, and Katie as much as the other three, I still missed them constantly. You have to remember, this was a time before facebook. A time when I used email for school assignments, and not for personal correspondence. A time when I had a Zach Morris sized cell phone, and long distance phone calls cost more than my meager College allowance. A time before text messaging.  A time before I had ever heard of a blog as a medium for keeping loved ones in the loop. So when facebook came along our junior year of College (eek!) it allowed us to reconnect.

We started a facebook group called ‘Highs and Lows’ and every Friday we would post our weekly summaries. It went pretty strong for a few months, but inevitably we started to only update it more intermittently, and then not at all.

In the 10 years since graduating (eek!) our lives and loves have taken us to opposite ends of the world, literally. Two of us are living outside of the States, and 7 are living outside of Louisiana. Between the nine of us we cover both US coasts, the northeast and southwest, Europe and Australia. Between time zones, kids, jobs, and life in general, it's quite hard to track these girls down for a good heart to heart chat, and getting us all together is virtually impossible. 

Leaving space for the missing 4 at Tracy's wedding.

Last Friday, when I had a text on my i-phone 4 telling me that Megan had sent me a facebook message (seriously, how easy is communication these days?) I thought I knew what it would be. I honestly thought Megan was messaging us to tell us she was pregnant.

8 of us at Megan's wedding last year.

I'm ashamed to say that I had to brace myself for that information. Before I checked to see what the message even said, I had this whole pep talk in my mind: “Okay Laine. This is it. You’re officially the last married person in your high school group to get pregnant. Now just remember, the timing hasn’t been right for you and Jonathan yet, and even though circumstances haven’t been right for you to have a baby, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be over the moon for Megan. So, can you end your pity party/anxiety attack and just put on a happy face for your dear friend? Alright, here we go…”

…and I opened facebook to find this message instead: “Happy Friday. Missing you guys today. Highs and lows?”

Um: Low- having a panic attack every time I get a text/call/message from a friend because I just know it’s someone else letting me know that they are pregnant and that I am officially the only socially stunted woman left on the planet. (And feeling incredibly guilty that my first thought isn’t one of overwhelming joy for my friend, but one of selfish panic for myself. Seriously, what’s up with that? I guess God isn’t finished with me yet. )

High- Reading my friends’ highs and lows and feeling like a part of their lives again.

Don't ask...P.s. do you remember fruitopia?

Suffice to say, I thought it was a great idea and I hope we continue to update our highs and lows on a somewhat weekly basis. Either way, I’ll be sharing mine on The Aberdeen Wife every Friday afternoon, and will be moving Phone Photos to another day. 

So why don’t you grab some curly fries and a chocolate shake and get ready to share your own highs and lows of the week. It’s good for your soul, I promise. And plus, I’d love to hear about your week.

Now anyway, back to me:
Lows (I always start with the Lows; get them out of the way): Jonathan was in Poland on business and I was lonely. And bored. Being a housewife without a husband is pretty dull. Of course, I procrastinated all of my chores until yesterday, which leads me to my next low: 7 hours of cleaning house despite it being a beautifully sunny day outside.  Also, being filled with worry over my friends and family in south Louisiana as Hurricane Isaac made landfall. Everyone is safe, but several of them are out of power, and a few of them are flooded.

My Aunt's house:(

Highs: I’ve already blogged about them, but seeing Highland Coos and sampling MacAllan whisky was pretty awesome. I also had a fun girl’s night on Tuesday, listening to live music at Malone’s a local Irish Pub. I haven’t been a fan of the night life in Aberdeen, but I do enjoy a cozy bar with live folk music and Stella on draft. Jackpot! And in general, just feeling like I finally have a group of girlfriends who rival what I had in high school. I continue to be so grateful for the friends we’ve made in Aberdeen.

So what about you? Highs and Lows?