Bonding

What Doesn’t Kill You…

Jeanna G1 Comment

When I was little, I loved having the attention of my older brothers. They’re 11 and 12 years older, so they had many other interests aside from playtime with their baby sister. Needless to say, whenever I got their attention, I was up for anything…and I mean anything. 

A common activity was being timed on how fast I could do things for them. “Go get me a soda! I’ll time you!”

Or when we’d play hide and seek and they’d stuff me under the couch cushions and sit on me and act like they didn’t know where I was. 

Then there was that time Jon tore up the neighbor’s yard on his dirt bike while I was riding piggyback. 

Or that time they both got tired of babysitting, so they threw me in the backseat of the car for a joyride. They pulled so many donuts in a cul-de-sac that I’m still unable to get on carnival rides. 

But my favorite activity was playing Monster with Joe. The story line was always that he was the Monster, like as in Frankenstein’s, and someone was always trying to take away his Dolly (yours truly), so he had to keep me away from the bad guys. He’d whip me around in circles by one arm and then let go. I’d fly and roll across the yard and then run back for more. 

Now I know what you must be thinking… You wish you had brothers like mine, don’t you? 

Dandy Lion Wishes

Jeanna G3 Comments

Blow away the seeds of a dandelion and wish that a dream come true returns to you. How many dandelions can you find, and how many wishes can you make? What would you wish for? To see someone again? To gain something new? To have more of something you already have? To get back something you lost? Would you make a wish for someone else?

As a child, every so often, my dad would quietly wake me up early on a Saturday morning and tell me to get dressed and meet him at the car. We’d take the old, green Oldsmobile to breakfast at the Dandy Lion diner, just me and him. I probably ordered pancakes. I don’t actually remember. I don’t remember the conversations either. And I don’t remember much about what the place looked like, or even what town it was in. What I do remember is being there with my dad. Just me and him.

Early this past Saturday morning, my daughter and I were able to drive down to scoop up my dad on his 84th birthday and take him to a local diner for breakfast.

My Dandy Lion wishes came true.

Lambda Omicron Lambda

Jeanna GLeave a comment

I didn’t know much about sororities before entering college, but I always assumed they weren’t for me. I had some idea that they were exclusionary on purpose and that they were for girly girls, and I was neither of those things. But as my time in college went on, I realized there were benefits to being in a sorority that I was missing out on. For one, they got to be involved in homecoming and other big events, just because they were a sorority. But the biggest thing was that they were a group of friends, and they had each other when they needed each other. So, for a number of years after college, I regretted not pledging.

But, like I usually do, I found a solution; I joined a sisterhood. We’re not an official sorority, but we have a lot of similar characteristics. I basically had to pledge and get voted in. Our “founder” reached out to me and asked if I wanted to meet up for a play date. That went well, so she introduced me to our “treasurer.” I passed that interview, so I was invited on a big trip, where I was essentially hazed for the weekend, but I survived and made the cut. There’s a core group of us, and we all rotate through positions, like social, public relations, and recruitment chairs.

Aside from the technicalities, the best similarity is that we are a group of friends who support each other. We share our ups and downs together. We travel, celebrate, and adventure together. We also cry, complain, and do nothing together. But the best thing about us is that we’re always laughing together, sometimes at each other, but usually with each other. There’s nothing we can’t turn into a joke, and that makes living this crazy life tolerable.

We’ve referred to ourselves as a tribe, posse, core, mountain bitches, lake-lovin’ ladies, winos, and hockey hoes. None of them know that I also think of our group like it’s a sorority, so maybe I’ll just surprise them with t-shirts one day. I’ll get the Greek letters Λ Ο Λ printed on them (that’s LOL in English).