Another Chapter of Friends

Whenever Mary Mulari comes to Iowa for a visit, I ramp up a big "Rita's Sew Fun Reunion Breakfast". The women who worked with me in that store (could it be 20 years ago??) are terrific friends. We spent SO MUCH TIME together back then. Working the store, planning the classes, and the special events, selling the machines, setting up the customers. Judy, Ronda, Phyllis, me, Patsy -- it was a wonderful crew. Even though we don't frequently get together or talk on the phone nowadays -- the MOMENT we walk into a room -- we are like magnets coming together...

But the last time we tried to have lunch, somebody's father died. We tried to reschedule, but then somebody was sick, or had to babysit a grandchild... The next time, I didn't call soon enough.

I decided to be more spontaneous...

Hummm -- instead of ramping up a big reunion -- I called Phyllis to see if she would like to meet me for breakfast the next day. She was delighted!! Then I called Patsy -- and she was ALSO DELIGHTED..!!

We had a lot of catching up to do! Weddings, grandchildren, husband-updates (okay, that part was boring)...But we soon got down to the nitty gritty....and it is AMAZING how quickly we got back into our usual rhythm. SOOO much laughter...These two women -- Phyllis on the left and Patsy on the right -- are both amazing. Phyllis is the BEST seamstress I ever met -- and she was a wonderful teacher. Patsy also sews every single day!! Like me, she is mostly remodeling thrift store finds for her granddaughters. (boys are so useless in that regard)...

One of the most interesting things for me on that day was learning that both Phyllis and Patsy decided to get rid of their home computers. Although they both used to be on the internet -- for different reasons -- they both decided to UNPLUG from technology. Phyllis said it was a big expense and she never enjoyed it that much. So she just stopped doing it...and eventually, unplugged the computer and took it to the landfill. Patsy said she actually got hooked and loved the internet -- so much so that it become a giant time-suck in her life. But she decided to unplug it when she saw her grandkids turning into zombies...and she was fighting with them every day about NOT playing with their gaming devices...and it just didn't seem like a worthwhile use of her time.

I've been thinking a lot about time. How precious it is. And I really do question how much of this stuff is worthy of the time it wastes? What did we used to do before all this stuff came into our lives? If you weren't on Facebook, Twitter, your smartphone, playing Angry Birds, farming games or cooking games...what would you be doing? Reading a book? Having a real conversation with a friend? Maybe actual gardening or cooking? I'm just asking...Although I never really got into Facebook -- I am hooked on Pinterest and have witnessed many perfectly bright people becoming addicted to pointless, inane games.

Phyllis and Patsy both raised six children. It was such a joy to spend time with them and talk about where we are now in our lives...it just felt like coming home.

If you're doing it right -- that's how it should feel when you get together with your friends. AND really good friends always make you think.

I am doing a reassessment of my technology...all this crap costs a lot of money. And maybe the real price is the loss of time. I'm gonna ponder that...