#89 Pre-School Troublemakers at it again

What happens when two people who were best friends for four years early childhood decide to hang out for an entire week?

It could go so wrong, right?

Different interests.

Different lifestyles.

Different personalities?

What if we don't have anything to talk about?

What if we hate each other?

What if one of us is psycho?

It was absolutely glorious! We picked up right where we left off in 1978.

We were "casual troublemakers" back then. I define that as we certainly did not sit quietly and play with dolls.

No, we were the ones who decided to go on a scavenger hunt around town, knocking on random people's doors and asking them for paperclips. Unchaperoned. When we were five. We were discovered when we arrived at the door of a sweet lady from church who promptly called my mother. They couldn't figure out how we got so far from home. I'm pretty sure we simply didn't stop talking and lost track of where we were.

Free range childhood was THE BEST!

Sorry I didn't let you free range, Emmy and Ollie. But, you know...CPS is real.

Things haven't changed at all. Kristin was still the same hysterically funny, kind, sweet, smart person she was when we were kids. We didn't stop talking. At all. For seven incredibly fun days!

And guess what? She told me she wanted to adventure and get out of her comfort zone.

So we did! I took her to my favorite places on St. Pete and we discovered some new ones too.

PSYCHIC READINGS

We got our tarot cards read by Linda at Christy's Enchanted Notion. (I'm a little shook. She looked at me with a worried expression and asked me if I was travellling soon. I said that I was and would be heading to NYC this week. She paused, and said, "Well, keep track of your purse. I don't THINK it will be stolen but someone might try". Gulp!

ESCAPE ROOM

We did a very mediocre escape room where we kept breaking the room and the Escape Matron had to keep sneaking in to fix what we broke. She felt bad for us and added some extra time, so I guess we "escaped", but not really. She told us she and her colleague were busy watching us in action and said, "You guys were so cute trying to figure everything out. You were like our moms". Ummmmm......k. Thanks?

BEACH

We went for an early morning beachwalk and found tons and tons of sand dollars.

KRATE

We went to Krate and had loaded cheese fries and bought special cookies. We got stones and heard about the shopkeeper's trouble with blowing up balloons. (??) We had a long discussion with two other shop owners who filled us in on their best lifetime adventures.

MOM AND DAD

We met up with Mom and Dad who of course remember Kristin well and filled in the gaps of our memories. For example, the Brownie camping trip we took in third grade in treehouses was a badass childhood adventure for us. Little did we know that there was a psycho-rapist in the area targeting girl scout campsites. So my mom, who was the best Brownie leader ever by the way, invited my dad and the local chief of police to come along on this camping extravaganza. The folks had guns and were ready to protect us little Brownies, while we were none the wiser. All was well, and we had a great time!

POTTERY

We went to the pottery studio where Kristin proceded to throw the most beautiful pots while I struggled to get mine centered. Basic stuff but I kept throwing my clay to the side of the bat. My instructor just wearily shook his head at me. I think I'll stick to hand building.

SOUNDBATH

We did the soundbath meditation at Gulfport and got ice cream at Let it Be. Note: Brown sugar boba ice cream sounds delicious but those darn frozen boba just about cracked all my teeth. Don't say I didn't warn you.

BADASS BOATING YOGA

And of course she met the Badass Gang. We went out on a pontoon on Lake Tarpon to spend a beautiful warm, sunny, blue-sky day. I got to drive the boat for the first time (thanks Jason) and I didn't crash!

We had planned to do a session of beach yoga as a group but instead we decided to do yoga on the boat. NOT EASY with all the rocking and rolling of the waves, but thanks to Katie who lead a great session.

APRIL FOOLS' DAY

And we schenaniganed together. Our poor friends and family! It was April Fool's Day after all and we had to play some pranks.

So I sent the same text to everyone just to see what people said.

After I sent it, I apologized for sending it to the wrong person.

Then Kristin and I, in hysterical peals of laughter, decided that my new "boyfriend" was a resident from one of my communities, was 92 years old, and the new love of my life, despite some, *ahem* physical changes that happen as men age a bit.

And, to make it supremely funny (at least to us), I used a photo of Kristin's Dad as my new boyfriend "Don".

All I can say is that my friends are soooooo supportive of me. Even though I bet they all knew it was a joke, they either played along and pretended this was true, or they were truly the most supportive, loving friends who were encouraging. One of my friends did express concern that he might die too early in our relationship and another gave me some good pharmacologic suggestons for alternatives to the little blue pill.

Some got a bit upset. :)

My family knows I love a good April Fool's prank and they called me on it quickly. But I just loved Oliver's first response to it...

For Kristin's family, she sent them some frantic texts telling them that I had made an appointment for the two of us to get matching peanut butter and jelly sandwich tattoos later that day and I wasn't taking no for an answer, even though she didn't want to do it.

Great responses from her husband and sister when they both told her, "If Beth was truly a friend, she would listen to you. Maybe get a friendship bracelet instead".

We used to play pranks on Steve and his friends all the time when we were kids, and it was hysterically amusing for us to continue the tradition.

So, for a friendship that was started when we were four, lasted in person until I moved when I was eight, and picked up where we left off all these years later -- how lucky am I? It's not often when someone has a true friend for life, and Kristin is that person.

I miss you already! Come back soon, ok? xoxoxoxx

Next time, though, bring Don with you.