Had a message on my cell phone a couple of days ago – when I listened to it, it went something like this – “I sure hope you have one of those phones that shows you the number that called because I don’t have a clue what my phone number is – but then you know how challenged I am by numbers. Anyway, it’s Judy in case you haven’t figured that out by now – sure hope you can call me back by hitting reply.”
Of course I hadn’t listened to more than a couple of words before I knew it was my friend Judy and when I returned the call I didn’t bother to say who I was – I just said “Your phone number is XXX-XXXX and where the hell have you been?” That’s the way you talk to a dear friend whom you haven’t seen for about 6 years (or talked with for about 3) but a friend with whom you can just pick up the threads of conversation that were left dangling 6 years ago and keep talking.
Last I knew she was living in the east and working for a law firm in D.C. – she applied for a job here a couple of years ago but they apparently didn’t see her sterling qualities and passed on her but she and I both know there was a reason for all that. So a couple of months ago she moved back to Springfield and went to work for Blackwell Sanders as an attorney in their commercial real estate division. Both of her daughters live here plus 3 of her 5 grand kids and as far as she’s concerned, she is back to stay.
We immediately made plans to get together so this evening we met for dinner downtown at Riad (restaurant review to follow) and spent a couple of hours of non-stop talking and laughing. Judy was my law professor when I was working on my master’s but at the same time she was working on her MBA so we were students in the same Accounting class (taught by her brother!). She let me know early on that she didn’t care for those “squiggly lined things (numbers)” and that trait has never changed. We bonded during our accounting and law classes (I earned an A from her but it wasn’t easy) and soon were getting together to share drinks and solve all the problems of the world.
When she moved to Branson to work in real estate I gave her a key to my house in case she needed a place to crash while in Springfield (she probably still has the key but I’ve since moved). In the meantime we both dated an assortment of jerks and dweebs in search of Mr. Right while dealing with the challenges of our young adult offspring. She even came to the rescue of a family member who needed some legal help on the cheap – that’s the kind of friend she is.
I’m just thankful she is back and has no plans to move – but how can she even think of leaving when she has those 3 little grand kids to spoil. It’s going to be fun getting to spend time together and she’s already working on our first project – Pilates! That has to be an improvement from when we took yoga together many years ago – just picture a couple of Type A women being told to relax when we didn’t want to – it was not a good scene but did provide plenty of laughs then and now.
About Riad – Burl and I have thought about trying this Mediterranean restaurant a couple of times but never have – so tonight when meeting Judy I really wanted to find a place downtown. They had advertised an early-bird special so that gave us a perfect opportunity to go there. For $12.99 we got an appetizer, salad and entree so I chose Baba Ganosh with warm pita points, Greek salad and Dejage which was a chicken, broccoli and onion mixture flavored with Greek seasonings and served over rice. The food was excellent and the portions generous – couldn’t finish the entree. They also have a location on Republic Road so I have a feeling we’ll try it soon as I’m looking forward to tasting some of their other entrees.
On the Weight Watcher front I lost 1.6 pounds this week which was about what I expected. I knew I’d been doing all the right things and when I do, I get results. I’m sharing my success only to keep me focused so you will also know when the results are NOT to my liking. Did see one of my college sorority sisters at WW today and we laughed about how we could only wish we weighed what we did when we were at Drury – and we thought we needed to lose weight then. Gotta remember that I’m getting better, not older! 
