Actual Face Reunion...part deux

I've written before about my high school friends.  While most people bond with the people of their alma mater, my closest friends were my church youth group.  Every day I would go to classes and do what I needed to do, then run home to get on the phone to call Lynette or Laura or one of the 30 other people I spent every single one of my free minutes with.

A few years ago, we all reconnected on Facebook...and every once in awhile we do an "Actual Face Reunion."  I have to confess this year I was a little nervous about it.  After all, Julie Gray flew in from Missouri and I had a ton of last minute cancellations. But sometimes just the right people wind up in the right place.

Bess Ann, Susan and Julie all went to Southwest High School together.  Bess Ann is fun and all kinds of cool.  (Like motorcycle and tattoo cool.)  Susan still has a sweet spirit (just found out a few weeks ago she lives only a few blocks from me) and Julie is absolutely vibrant--like maybe she has some secret job as a superhero that she can't reveal to any of us or we would all be in danger. Julie told me a great story about getting to go to the "guys lunch" with Mickey and Clifford and that Mickey never let anyone do dishes on a Sunday.

LP and Bess Ann both have adventurous husbands so they spend their time cycling, hiking and doing other things that can make you bleed.  In fact, I have a great shot of Bess Ann and LP comparing injuries, but it isn't as cute as this one, so cuteness stands.

We played "Mafia"--a game the RDFL crowd taught us--but there was too much to talk about so we only went one round.

One of the things about growing up in a group is that "the village" raises you.  Not only did we catch up on news about each other but also brothers, sisters and parents. In fact, when Trey White walked in, Julie said, "Judge White!"  (Yes, we are actually now the age our parents were when we all used to hang out together.)  Needless to say "Judge White was Trey's dad and in looking at Julie's photo albums it was a weird sort of deja vu experience.

Because we went to a Baptist church near the seminary, many of our friends were only here for a few years as their fathers completed degrees and went onto ministry positions in other cities.  Not only was Julie one of those, but also Paul Ward--who left my freshman year.  However, Paul and I reconnected at Dallas Baptist University--where he and John were actually friends.  I'm always blown away by Paul's faith.  You always know he has it. Not in a loud and showy way, but in deep and solid waves that just sort of walk around with him.

Lisa is just awesome. In high school she was a practical sort of cool...like someone who had seen a lot of life and could quickly separate out the BS from the good stuff--and she only had tolerance for the "good stuff."   Here we were asking her about her braceletes.  They were a great style.  They had writing and there were tons of them in polished black and gray.   Lisa and her husband Mike are Mona Vie consultants.  We teased Mike a little bit about his Mona Vie t-shirt. Of course, now that I've just typed that you know that you can comment below and I will send you Mike's contact info so he can hook you up.

Probably the best part of the evening for me was that intangible of feeling part of something wonderful.  While all of these people have roles they play as, dads/moms and professionals, the more important thing is that every single one of them are doing good things in the world.  They volunteer at their churches, work in professions that help people, and are committed to their families.  They are the kind of people you'd build a town of if you could.

And in fact we did.  It just happened to have a steeple on it.  (And really, really geeky graphics.  Julie saved one and brought it as evidence.)