A Tribute to Danavee

So you know when you and your best friend enjoy the kind of relationship that is defined by knowing each other's thoughts with only a look? Or your brain waves seem to be so peculiarly aligned that you come to work dressed in color coordinated outfits without having planned ahead on the phone? Or you can't be seen in a workroom alone without someone saying, "Where's _______ (insert your best friend's name here)?" Or you just regularly finish each other's sentences so that, to the average outsider, you appear to communicate only in fragments? Anyway... this is a portrait of Danavee and me. And this entry is a tribute to her.

We do finish each other's sentences sometimes... well, except for one afternoon this week. In a case where I was hollering down the school hallway to a coworker in the following way, "Oh I haven't done that in ____," I paused. I was trying to say "eons" or "ages" but after a long day at work, my brain wasn't quite grasping either one of these appropriate choices.

A good friend such as my Danavee, who walked at my side at that particular moment, will sense when my brain has crapped out and she needs to intervene. And she gave it a good honest shot. For that I'll lovingly make fun of her in the following way, and we'll laugh about it tomorrow.

She came to my rescue with, "a coon's age!" Now, if we put it together, here's how that would sound, everyone... "Oh I haven't done that in a coon's age!" Then she looked at me and asked, "Is that what you were going to say?" Really, Danavee? Is that what I was going to say??? What does that even mean? A coon's age...

In any case, I'm adopting the phrase in honor of friendship. Here are a bunch of things that I haven't done in a coon's age:

1. seen the movie Xanadu

2. worn roller skates

3. bought a popsicle from the ice cream guy who drives the Jeep with the unmistakable bell

4. played the clarinet

5. watched a new episode of LOST ... doh! Scratch that.

6. listened to a cassette tape

7. looked decent in a two-piece

8. stuck a one handed cartwheel

9. dressed up for Halloween

10. described my age in terms of halves or three quarters.

Anyway... if you're reading this, that means I miss you, and I hope to see you again in less than __________. Man, don't you just hate when your brain craps out?

High times during playground duty...