Background information
Little did I know when I attended my high school 50th reunion last fall that I would run to old acquaintances who would become new friends? I have not been good at retaining bonds with old buddies, whether they be old school friends or friends I've left behind as we moved from one city to another. I have always envied those people who retain those ties. One of those people happens to be one of only two good friends I've kept in touch with since high school. Elly persuaded me to attend the reunion, which I did reluctantly. Surprising myself, I actually had a good time at the reunion but it was a small reunion the next day that really changed things.
Four of us got together for breakfast: my friend Elly, Ann, Katie and myself. After talking for hours for Ann, who I had last seen at our high school graduation, invited us to come visit her this spring at her home in Santa Fe. What an offer! I hadn't had a vacation in years, and never took one with friends - only with my husband. As it turned out Katie couldn't come but two other high school friends, still in touch with Ann and Ellie, were invited to join us. I had had some contact with one, Diana, but absolutely none with Cecile, the other woman to join us.
So here I was, booked to go on vacation with one friend and three relative strangers. How would that turn out? There was supposed to be a sixth member of our group, Susan, who lives on the West Coast and planned to meet us in Santa Fe, but illness kept her away at the last minute. So how would five women work out? Would we pair off? Would there be cliques? Would we all get along? I was particularly worried because I was the one most out of touch with the others.
I needn't have worried. There was never a problem. Nobody paired off, every one got along. We worked well as a group and sometimes split off into smaller combinations, but always happily.
Day One
Travel day. My husband drove me from our home in Connecticut to LaGuardia airport where I was to meet Cecile, Diana and Elly. Because I live so far from the airport we left extra early so I arrived an hour ahead of the others. Here I encountered the one catastrophe of the trip. I had packed two small bags - didn't want to be burdened with a big bag - one to check and one to carry on board, the latter of which has a handle and wheels. However I'd stuffed it so full, I had to check it and ended up having to carry the other - very heavy - bag with no wheels. It was a painful part of the trip to have to traipse through airports carrying this bag.
There was an accident on the highway I learned from a phone call my husband made on the way home and I was convinced my friends would not make it - but they did.
And there they were – heading toward the gate – three women; not high school girls, but definitely older, NOT old women. The stand out was Diana, who always had a flair, dressed in pink and orange and wearing a hot pink cowboy hat. She was flanked by Cecile and Ellie who were attired conservatively in grey, black and blue. They obviously didn’t spot me until I started waving my arms like a lunatic but once they spotted me there were hugs and kisses all around.
We chatted incessantly on the plane and were good friends by the time everyone had helped me schlep my heavy bag through the Dallas, Ft. Worth airport and onto the second leg of our trip. By the time we landed at Albuquerque, many long hours later, I was so sick of my heavy bag I was ready to ditch it. Instead we spotted a wheelchair and, hoping nobody was looking, we put the suitcase in it and were on our way.
We picked up our rental car and Elly drove us from Albuquerque to Santa Fe, up a steep and curving road to Ann's house and guest house. Elly and I were quartered in the Guest house and the others were in the main house.
In the photo are Cecile, Elly and Diana.
At breakfast our first morning, the talk turned to our shared past, shared of course, only as much as we wanted to share it at that time. Now we could get at the heart and really get to know each other. Diana had the biggest story to tell. She and her husband got married our senior year and were the first high school couple to be married in the history of the school. And that marriage is, amazingly, still together.
view from Ann's guesthouse
I realized at breakfast that I still didn’t know much about Cecile, who I’d known the least in high school, so I made an effort to ask her questions and learn more about her. Learned where she’d gone to college and who she’d married and that she’d been in real estate for the last 40 years, an accomplishment only a fellow realtor (me for 4 years) could comprehend. Cecile wanted to lay low this day so she stayed home while the rest of us piled into the car and headed to downtown
where we were too late to find much that was good but did manage to bag (literally) a bunch of fresh romaine and arugala leaves. Like the bag in the wheelchair, this bag of greens became our joke of the day, as we carried it in with us wherever we went so it would not wilt in the car.
We saw a group doing African dancing that was spectacular. We all wanted to get up and dance with them. Ann told us she had taken the class with the woman who led the group and used to participate in this and I think we all would have loved to see her do the dancing.
It took us all afternoon to shop and do a few errands that alone we could have accomplished in an hour easily, but it wouldn’t have been as much fun. We did go to an artist’s market where we all purchased pottery items from one of the stalls. I bought a beautiful bowl, and worried over the $27 it cost me but thought it was so pretty I didn’t mind too much. When I got home I was about to place it on the table and it slipped out of my hands and fell one or two inches to the table top where it broke into many pieces. We are going to try and track the artist down to see if we can replace the bowl. I’m really pissed, as he demonstrated how this dishes would not break. NOT!
Back home, it was my turn to cook dinner, which, by the time we got home I regretted, because I was tired and because I cook for other people every day in my job and I wanted a break. I made an old favorite of mine - a pasta dish with shrimp. lots of garlic and feta cheese and Greek olives. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and the best part was that I didn’t need to clean up.
We had a birthday celebration for Ann's husband including a yummy chocolate cake Ann picked up at Whole Foods. Richard is a photographer and his beautiful work is displayed all around their beautiful Santa Fe home, which has a view that must reach 100 miles.
Personalities are beginning to emerge. Diana is definitely the most verbal and most dramatic. Ellie is very talkative also but her manner is more conservative – she doesn’t move as quickly or react as quickly. But she is the most true blue of us all and definitely the glue that brought us all together.
Ann is the humanitarian. Her whole life is made up of kind deeds. She’s a retired doctor, who worked in the Pueblos and, Doctors without borders. She is involved in all kinds of volunteer work, she never judges and is accepting of everyone.
Cecile is the least talkative and needs to be drawn out. She has not been well and needed more time than the rest of us to recover from the traveling. She felt better tonight after a restful day.
