happily surprised by a long-time friend

In eighth grade, my friend Barbie got sick. She had to have a shunt put in her brain, and had a really tough year. She started having pretty severe ambulation problems after that and a lot of the kids in our school were not too cool about it.

Barbie and I were the only Methodists in our class, which was really rare in our teensy Lutheran/Catholic town, so we had Confirmation Class together every Wednesday, when we got to leave school early! After two years worth of Wednesdays, grilling Pastor Phil as to why guys always inherit the land, we were confirmed in the spring, and that I day I fell off of the trunk of Jerame Pearson's moving car, downhill. My mother is so proud.

Shortly thereafter, Barbie moved to Fargo with her family. We lost touch after a while. And not many people knew she had a brain tumor three years later.

One day during my senior year at NDSU, pulling a shift at Y-94, movement on the street below caught my eye from the wall of glass above (we were in a cool studio then). Barbie was crossing the street, hair long again, walking fine. She was there visiting her mother, who worked in the office beneath my radio station (Heh. Like I owned it).

Yadda, yadda to a few years later, and we email once in a while. Yesterday's phone call was such a gift, and an inspiration. Not only has Barb fully recovered from her MALIGNANT brain tumor, praise God, but January 9, she will RUN in the PHOENIX MARATHON.

I am so thrilled. And I recommitted to my own full physical recovery. I was so excited, in fact, that I promptly went upstairs to clean up Erik's office around my bike, and had a seizure. Today I am fully given over to headache suppression maintenance.