Thursday, August 14, 2008

Let's Send Fruit Baskets

I haven't been around much this week as I took a few days off to spend time with one of my oldest friends, "L," and her 17-year-old daughter ("S"), who were visiting from Massachusetts.

L and I met in our freshman year of college in the chemistry lab. We were both biology majors at the time and of course chemistry was one of our required subjects. After a few days next to each other in the chem lab mixing up smelly chemicals and causing minor explosions and fires in our immediate area, we were fast friends, and have remained so ever since.
We both hung around with different crowds during college - L started out as a commuter, while I was in the dorm, so we had different groups of friends. Later she did move on campus but was never in the same dorm as I was. But in between all of the craziness we always met up - either in the dining hall, or the cafeteria at the school, or in one of our rooms - and talked about everything under the sun and commiserated about our various problems and traumas.

Thanks to L, I actually managed to get to one Boston Red Sox game, visited the Arnold Arboretum, and went to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, none of which I would have gotten around to doing without her influence.
The other friends I hung around with at the time were more apt to drag me out to a bar than to a museum.


Funny thing is, I am not in touch with any of those friends, but L and I have remained close ever since.

Through the years we visited with each other's families, and had rendez-vous in various locations, ranging from Cape Cod to New Jersey. When I met DH and was deep in relationship angst, her mom was the one who said "hold on to him, he's a good one," and I listened.

When L met her husband, they visited us before they were even married and we all got along as if we'd known each other forever. And once they had their daughters, we were part of their lives as well.

Now we're still sharing the joys and commiserating over the hard parts of life - we both have aging parents and are facing the daily challenges that that entails. But through it all we have had each other and that is what is great about a friendship like this. No matter how long it's been between visits, the moment we are together it is as if no time has passed.

So it was great to spend a few days of quality time with L and her older daughter S, as so often our get-togethers have been too brief or full of activities without enough time to really talk.

S is a charming, witty girl who really is fun to be with. I thoroughly enjoyed hanging around with a 17-year-old and understanding her perspective on things. Do you realize she is so young she only barely remembers cassette tapes? And she's never known a world without cell phones? And did you know, if you're 17 and are still in school, you can actually explain how a simultaneous equation is solved in Algebra? (This is something I have never mastered). She also seems to have inherited both of her parents' sense of humor.

We even had time to sit out on our deck and talk about yours and my favorite topic, politics. L has way too many things on her plate to get that involved in the whole subject as a rule, but we did talk about the Iraq war.

Her view was that although we never should have gone there in the first place, she doesn't see how on earth we can extricate ourselves without leaving it in such a huge, dangerous mess that it can never be fixed.

I agreed, and then S chimed in with her opinion and it was great. Her solution to the mess? Send fruit baskets!

"You know how when you've done something, and you're really, really sorry about it? And you want to apologize? You send a fruit basket! Maybe we should just ship all of the Iraquis fruit baskets! Then they'd have something to eat and wouldn't hate us so much!"

Naturally she was kidding.

But you know what? There are probably worse ideas out there!

Speaking of ideas, I wonder whether it's a good or bad idea that Obama has settled on an agreement with Hillary Clinton to have her name placed in nomination at the Democratic convention? As a result, delegates will be declaring themselves for Hillary Clinton during the roll call. Of course, when Hillary herself votes she will then declare her support for Obama and ask her delegates to support him.

But this might backfire and make it look as if the party is divided. I am also more than a little concerned about having both Hillary AND Bill speaking at the convention, given Bill's lukewarm (or perhaps I should say, rather chilly) support for Obama.

I understand that Obama wanted to come to an agreement with Clinton's supporters before the convention to soothe their feelings and make them feel validated.

But maybe it would be better to just send them fruit baskets.

19 comments:

enigma4ever said...

yeah...Fruit baskets ...or B& ice cream....or a box of Whitmans.....this is the Clintons hoping for a big ass lovefest...oye....I just want it over...howabout you???

kinda sick of the whole thing..ya know...

( loved hearing about your friend..very sweet)

Odessa said...

oh, what a wonderful story of friendship, thanks for sharing this. i love how her mom told you to hang on to your DH.

Ruth Hull Chatlien said...

I enjoyed the personal history too and the thoughts on apologies / making peace. Great post.

Christopher said...

You saw the Red Sox??? Good seats?

Who did they play? Did they win?

Was Veritek catching that day?

We're in the Red Sox era now that the Yankees are in decline. It pains me to say that.

About Hillary. It's never going to stop with the Clintons as long as Obama keeps bending over and making concessions to her and her lunatic followers.

At some point, Obama needs to start acting like the leader of the Democratic party and tell Bill and Hillary to fuck off. They're time in the sun is O.V.E.R.

Christopher said...

Oops! S/B "Their." LOL!!

Mary Ellen said...

Why is it suddenly "conceding" to "allow" Hillary's name to stay on the ballot for nomination. This is the way it's always been done. Since when do we have to give an appearance of phony unity in order to placate Obama or his supporters? If I recall, we've had many Presidents who came into the Democratic Convention with fewer delegates than Hillary, and still won the nomination. I'm not saying that will happen this time, but let's be honest...is this the Democratic Party or a Fascist regime?

I think Hillary is owed the right to be treated as every other nominee has been treated in the past and if Obama is "embarrassed" by not getting a unanimous vote, then is he really fit to lead?

Just sayin'....

Fran said...

I love the story of your friendship and what she influenced you to do... and that you are friends lo these many years on! And her daughter- just lovely.

Honestly, I can't even comment about politics tonight. Arggghhhh.

That said, this is a great post!!

Mariamariacuchita said...

Haha!! send 'em all fruit baskets. Isn't it great to have old longtime friends?

On the political front, I am actually glad to see Obama supporting the most democractic process. I think this way there will be less bickering when he gets the nomination. No one can accuse him of rigging anything if he keeps it all on the up and up.

If you want a VERY detailed account of what is happening/has happened in Georgia and Russia, see the post at Renegade Eye.

enigma4ever said...

hey about Tomcat- apparently they sent him an email that he has so many days to use his blog or forfiet it- so that is why I set up a seperate blog for messeges...and I will snail mail them to him every few weeks...( he has had a hard summer..and is not feeling well- so I am trying to make sure he gets some support from blogatopia...)

but it sounds like Blogger might cut him off anyday- so I wanted him to know that we are holding Some kind of spot for him...

thanks for looking in on him...

hey about that fruit basket- can it be rotten fruit? or bananas for them to slip on? jus sayin'.......

Christopher said...

Hillary and the PUMA kooks deserve bushels of rotten tomatoes.

How they're delivered I'll leave to others. *wink*

Anonymous said...

S sounds likes like a wonderful kid. I'm glad you enjoyed your visit with friends.

Mauigirl said...

Enigma, I agree - I can't wait for the convention to be over with. It feels so anticlimactic when the primary season went on forever.

Odessa, I'm glad you enjoyed it - and her mom has always been very perceptive!

Ruth, glad you liked it too. I wish it were as easy as just sending fruit baskets.

Christopher, I'm afraid I don't remember who was playing - I think it was in 1974! I think Carl Yazstremski was still on the team back then. And maybe Carlton Fisk was catching? I know he was in 1975 when they almost (but not quite) won the World Series.

Mary Ellen, now that I think of it, you're right, I seem to remember there being other years when some delegates supported other candidates than the winning one. I guess this is the first time there was one that had so many, so it just seems weird. At any rate, I'm glad they were able to come to a peaceful agreement. Hopefully it will all work out well.

Fran, I'm glad you enjoyed the post. I'm very lucky in that I have several really special friends from long ago - including one from grade school - that I'm still in touch with. Friendships are so important... And I hear you on the politics. I've been tuning it out a bit lately too.

Maria, welcome! I agree, it's probably a good thing they worked out a compromise and hopefully things will go smoothly at the convention. Thanks for the link, I'll go check it out.

Enigma, that's surprising about Tomcat's blog - my mother hasn't posted on her blog since last July and she hasn't gotten any notes. Very strange. At any rate, I hope he is able to be out and about and on line again soon. It's good you set up that blog so we can leave messages for him.

Christopher, rotten tomatoes might not add to the party unity, LOL!

Mauigirl said...

DCup, you must have commented right when I was posting my response!

Yes, S is a great kid and her younger sister is too. She didn't come down to visit because she's away at camp. Hard to believe S will be going to college a year from now. It seems like yesterday that she was a baby.

D.K. Raed said...

Old friends are great because they knew you when, and they obviously still like you! New friends are fun, but until you build up a history, there's always lots of 'splaining. Did you bring out any 8-tracks to freak out the daughter? LOL, I've saved a few as collector's items (mostly Led Zep).

Fruit Baskets! Well, good start, I'd say. Better than much else we've done to "rebuild" Iraq. The convention disruption thing is on my mind, too, but hell, let it happen & let us hope we can get past it as a party.

Anonymous said...

Great story MG. S. sounds like a really sharp kid. The fruit basket idea is a novel one and very likely no where near as expensive as the bombs, bullets and boots we have their now... and I'm not talking about the one being used by our soldiers, but the corporate-sponsored mercenaries cloaked in the guise of security experts.

Sorry for the rant... I'm glad you had a great time. That was the point of this post, no?

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