Blindsided

A female's emotions are so close to the surface, waiting for an eruption of many kinds: happiness, jealousy, sadness, anger, etc. As a mother of three rambunctious boys, I see this to be so true for myself. Therefore, I am not sure why I was so blindsided the other day when I did the simple act of getting the mail.

I walked out to my mailbox on a stifling weekday and saw that there was a package in there. Most packages this week come to Evan as it will be his 4th birthday on Monday, so when I looked at the name on the package, I was startled to see it was addressed to me. The name in the return address corner was one of my best friends from when I lived in Cleveland, Tyna. (Here we are on the night before I left town!)

In my kitchen I started the open the package. I could already feel my throat tightening and tears beginning to come to my eyes at the thought of my friend. She had sent me a "Back to School" teacher package chock full of pens, pencils, stickers-- the works! At this moment, I sobbed. Tears were just streaming down my face. I was blindsided by my emotions. I realized just how much I miss my friend.

Tyna and I met when our oldest children were just six weeks old at a Baby Gymboree class. The babies did not get a lot of enrichment from that class, but I know that both Tyna and I did. That class started a friendship that became so important to my years of staying at home. At first, we had a playgroup with all the mommies in the class, but eventually it dwindled down to just Tyna and me.

Our routine consisted of occasional zoo trips because I lived so close to the Cleveland Zoo. Mostly, we would gather on Friday mornings at Tyna's house to let the five children play (my three kids and her two.) At about 11:30 the chicken nugget cooking would commence, and then Tyna and I would feast on BBQ Chicken Pizzas and frosty Sprites.

The most important part of these gatherings would be our chatter. We would laugh about the latest TV shows we shared in common. We would gossip about the latest news from our friends and families. We would commiserate about the hardships of being a mom and rejoice about the delights of motherhood as well.

When I knew I was moving to Wisconsin, we acknowledged it then didn't discuss my move until about two weeks before I went. I vividly remember the tears that would linger in my eyes during those conversations. We would just say, "Let's not talk about it yet."

It is easy to see why I was blindsided by her package. In an instant I remembered how much I miss her friendship and daily chatter. How much I miss just hanging out with our kids together. How much I missed just being her friend. My emotions betrayed me again, yet they reminded my of my remarkable friend Tyna. I miss yoU!