A Wicked Good Time

So, Facebook has some definite upsides, you know?  

(Although it has some time-sucking definite downsides, too!)  

One of these upsides for me has been reconnecting with people I've been close to in other times of my life, then subsequently lost track of (because, when I was a kid and someone moved to the next town over, that could have been across the country in my mind...  no kid had cell phones at that point to stay in touch...  well, no adult did either!)

So, one of my reconnections (real word?  Blogger says "no") was my Kindergarten friend Chad.  I went to school with Chad for kindergarten and first grade before he moved far far away (about 10 miles away, I would venture to guess), and we lost touch.

Then there's Ginger...  we were great friends starting in first grade through elementary school until she started going to a private school in fifth grade.  Then I moved in sixth grade.  My first day of high school, I walked into chorus and LO AND BEHOLD, there was Ginger!  She and I now go to church together (her hubby is one of the pastors...  that's still funny to me that she's married to a pastor!), and I consider her a real friend.

So, through the magic of Facebook, she and I have both reconnected with Chad (Ginger and Chad also went to the private school together for several years).  Chad lives about 5 hours away, but made the time a few weekends ago to come visit us, and boy did we have a WICKED good time!  :)

On Saturday morning, through Ginger's mad investigative skillz, we found out where our first grade teacher was (in a local nursing home), and we went to visit her.  That was such a lovely time...  I used to live 2 doors down from Mrs. F, so I remembered her 3 daughters, too.  And 2 of them were there during our visit!  Mrs. F is as sharp as ever, and seemed really pleased to see us.  I'm so glad we saw her!

Then that night, Ginger and I got all gussied up & rode our local transit system train to downtown Big City...

... to meet Chad for dinner before we went to see WICKED!!!

Ginger and I had both seen the musical once before and LOVED it!  But this was Chad's... 16th TIME to see it!!!  (did I mention that he's a managing editor of a magazine, and also its entertainment editor???  He sees a LOT of shows!)

I enjoyed the show as much the 2nd time, and got tickled at Chad/Ginger as THEY got tickled during the show and couldn't stop laughing.  As we were driving back to the train station, we got tickled again, then noticed a rather large man riding a scooter that was about 1/2 the size of him.  I wish I had gotten a better picture, but I was laughing and moving at the same time...

Is that first grade humor, or what???

Finally, Chad walked us to our train station (his hotel was right there), and waited for the train with us.  It's amazing that even though it's been 25-30 years since we've seen him, we had such a great time reconnecting!