Writer (Five Minute Friday)

Welcome to my Five Minute Friday post of the week. Join the gang of us over at Lisa-Jo's, won't you? And write along with us. The rules are easy, the company is grand.

1. Set your timer for 5 minutes and write on the prompt.
2. Link up your post with the crew over here.
3. Then go visit the one who posted before you. Read the post. Leave a little sunshine and encouragement in the comments. That's the heart of the Five Minute Friday community - and the only unbreakable rule.

And for a bonus, feel free to join us over on Twitter on Thursday evenings for a little #FMFParty twitter party. We'd all love to chat with you.

WRITER

I never really considered myself a writer until all this blogging, thanks to the world of Five Minute Friday and the encouragement of some on-line friends who have turned into real life friends.

However, I have always been a letter writer. No, I don't know why a letter writer doesn't equate to a writer-writer in my mind. It is what it is. My grandmother taught me at an early age to write thank you notes. And that grew into hello, how are you notes. and a host of other things.

Then when I was starting high school, I started meeting folks at the political conferences I went to with my dad. Fun people. People that I wanted to stay in touch with, and people that I would see summer after summer, for a week at a time, but that was the only time we saw each other. LOUSY. And this was in the days before email. And they lived far away (California and Kentucky and Colorado and all kinds of places) so there was no phone calling allowed. (Pre-everyone-had-a-cell-phone ... nevermind with-unlimited-minutes). So we did the only thing we could - we wrote. Good old fashioned pen pals.

Over the years some of us became closer than others. And a most petered out after we went away to

Joshua James Northup (1976-2006)

college, without the summer reunions to connect and ground us. Growing up stinks sometimes. But a few - a particular few - kept in touch. Josh and I wrote often - twice a week throughout high school. Once a month or so while in college. [**my five minutes just ended. But I am not quite done. So breaking rule #1...] It turned out I went to college with a few guys who knew Josh (he was from KY, I am a Jersey girl) and I remember how fun it was to connect our worlds a little bit beyond just the two of us. To meet someone else who knew and loved him. And right after graduation, I got married, so we were in touch less frequently. But always Christmas cards - until the year he died, and his mom had to send me the tough letter ... "dear Jen, I found your Christmas card on Josh's desk, and I am so sorry to tell you..." A beautiful heart - a beautiful life - ended too soon due to an unknown heart condition. Josh was a treasure and a blessing to all who knew him, and I am thankful I still have some of his precious letters saved. Wonderful memories.

out to dinner - sharing with Spy Guy, who my kids traveling with me

And there's one other pen pal.
23+ years later. Yes, I am dating myself, I am still in contact with one of the original gang. Robb and I started writing the summer I turned 14. He split his time between Connecticut with his dad and California with his mom. So my letters went up the coast and across the country. I always used to skip to the mailbox, hoping a letter was in the box. All through HS and all through college. We visited once in Connecticut at his dad's house - this was about 3 years after we'd been writing, because I could drive by then. He wrote after he went to college in Ohio. And then I moved to Nashville, and still the letters came. He moved to North Carolina after he graduated, and I learned a new address. He stopped to visit me in Nashville my sophomore year, on his way west back to California. And still the letters came. He flew to NJ for my wedding, and then the letters became less frequent - but still, they came. Christmas cards, and even though the rest of the world was on email by then, we still wrote. Two kids later, and the letters were very few and far between, but I tried to never miss a Christmas card.

riding the carousel on the boardwalk

Eventually, I got divorced, and then I found myself with some free time on my hands, and my girls were away for an extended visit with their dad one summer, so I called up one of my oldest friends and booked myself a trip to California. He showed me around his world. I spent some time with his mom. I saw where he worked and the delightful kids he teaches every day. We played on the boardwalk and rode roller coasters and laughed until we cried. We went to an Oakland A's game together. (his one flaw ... he's a Yankees fan ;)  ) And we reminisced how this visit was even like the early years we'd known each other - when we wrote for months on end, and then hung out for just a week. Only to repeat the cycle for another year.

With cell phones and email and facebook, we're a little more technologically advanced now - but there's still days when we resort to the good old pen and paper. And I smile every time I walk to the mailbox and see a letter from him. Friends for life, united by the power of the word "writer."