raging reunion

 it has been a long, long, long time since all of us were in the same room - even

on this night there was still one missing - and even longer since we've all

been on the same court, but this stellar photo is proof that i was lucky to have

been a part of the best club volleyball team that there ever was.

 

we practiced at various high schools, got yelled at by and yelled back at our coaches,

yelled at each other, went on road-trips, toilet-papered ex-boyfriends' houses, had

sleep-overs, ate pans and pans of brownies, watched really funny and really stupid

movies again and again, were cheered on by each others' parents, watched our parents

become almost as good of friends as we were, dyed each others' hair, and survived

sharing small, disgusting motel beds (even the nights after we played for hours and refused

to shower before going to sleep because we were gross and just didn't care).  we did all of

that and more, but that was way back in high school.  what's amazing is that it felt like

we hadn't even skipped a beat when we all got together on this night.

 

some of us keep in touch, and some of us still even play volleyball together, but a

reunion of this magnitude hasn't happened since ceara's wedding...i think.

 

 

 

 

veig texted me to let me know sam was in the hospital on bed-rest for the rest of her

pregnancy, and asked if i'd want to go visit her together.  of course i said yes.  i called

jackie, who called ceara, and veig called petey, and the next thing you know we were

all sitting in sam's hospital room eating cookies.  petey had just had her baby 3 weeks

before this, and veigel only had a few weeks to go (she just had her baby, oaklee,

the other day!).  it was fun to sit around and talk about the old days and call each other

by our maiden names (that'll never stop, i'm sure), but it was fun to catch each other up

on the new stuff, too.  we've all got at least one kid now, which is amazing and crazy and

in no way means that we've "grown up" at all.

 

i was a lucky, lucky girl to be on that first club rage black team.  a lot of my best

memories from high school and my teenage years are with these girls, and they'll be my

best friends forever. 

chicky says time to get up

i swore i'd never say that to my kids because all three of us porter

girls hated it with a fiery passion when jan jan chirped it to wake us

up, and i can proudly say that i have refrained thus far.  but there isn't

really a need to chirp anything when my only child is such a trooper

about me dragging his cuteness out of bed at an ungodly hour of the

morning to take the man of our house to the airport.

 

 

 

richard has gone to boston (actually southbridge, just south of boston)

four times now.  two times very recently, each for a week, and only separated

by one week at home.  does that make sense?  he left for a week, came home

for a week, and left for another week.  anyway, it was as chaotic as i'm making

it sound.  but marty boy was a great sport about waking in the middle of the night

to let me put him in his least favorite place in the world: the carseat.  i tried to be

in as good a mood as humanly possible so that richard's last memory of me wasn't

a haggard, ornery-pants wife that he didn't really want to come home to.  i think it

helped, at least a little.

 

 

both days that he left i took work off so that we could recover.

a lot of this happened on those days.  he may be richard's little twin,

but the fact that his hand is on his face in tired distress does in fact

prove that he is also my child.

 

 

here we are the second time around.  still as happy as ever to

be driving to the airport at 3:30 in the morning.  woof.

 

 

my dad is awesome and let me borrow his ipad so that we could facetime

with richard every night.  the last time was the best because richard was

able to get a real response out of the boy...he had him smiling and talking,

and it was the next best thing to all actually being in the same room together.

 

 

we're both so glad when daddy comes home.

 

 

and he's glad, too...glad enough to let the boy do just about whatever

he wants.  drool...what drool?

 

 

 

 seeing this just makes my heart feel like it could burst.

next time richard goes to boston/southbridge, we're going with.

we're making a family vacation out of his program graduation, and

hopefully the grandpas will be joining us for that east coast road trip.