Chirky

Lately, it seems, God has brought new people into my life. Not so much new, though, because they are people I knew in high school. I don't keep up with anyone from high school really, except those few that I've recently "met" again.

First, was Willow. Remember her?
Second, was Monica. Remember her?

Now, it is Misste. I think Misste and I became friends in high school when we were on the dance team together. I remember her in 7th grade, when we knew each other but weren't "friends." We were on a school fieldtrip to Kilgore, Texas, and it was to educate us about oil. Or something. I seem to remember her as a giggly, loud pre-teen, and she was wearing a shirt to match her best friend's. Of course, I am also giggly and loud, which is probably why we became friends a few years later. That, and we also lived near each other, in the country, where we ate crawdaddies out of our driveway. Maybe Misste didn't, but you know that I did.

When Misste got her first car, we were so.o.o.o.o excited. It was a Nova! A hoopty! (Please keep in mind this was the mid-90s.) But she was able to drive before any of the rest of us, so we thought it was sumo-cool.

Misste is now married, and lives in Tennessee. I lamented to her how I would love to live in the mountains, and this was her reply:

Living in the mountains is not all it's cracked up to be!! We have three new pets. Only they are not the kind of pets that you can play with. They are BEARS!! Big black bears!!! At first we thought there was only one, but Jamie [her husband] stepped outside one morning last week to see how cold it was and all three of them were sitting by our side porch!!! I couldn't believe it!!

They tried to play football, but bit just a little too hard on the ball. Then they tried to play T-Ball and broke the stand in half, so then they decided to eat potting soil. And then got on my car with their front paws!!!

Monday night I stepped out onto the porch to get a bucket, and when I dumped the water out of it, I dropped it. That scared the bear who was right beside the house (also right beside me) and it ran off. I scream and ran in the house crying!!! [I would have run in the house crying, too!] They are just a little too close for comfort now!!!

The latest episode happened last night. I was grilling steaks on the grill - it was still daylight so I felt pretty safe. But I kept hearing something up in the trees. I wasn't about to go look, so I tried to convince myself that it was just my imagination. I finished cooking and went and sat in the living room to wait for Jamie. About 6:45 I got up to go back into the kitchen and just happen to look out into my front yard. There it was: my imagination had come to life!!! One of the bears was standing in the middle of my driveway. Of course, I panicked and called Jamie to warn him so he didn't drive up and scare it. Then about 2:00 this morning Jamie heard something outside. He got up to go check it out and much to his surprise that dumb bear was on the porch disassembling my grill!!!! So now my grill in laying in pieces on our porch!!!

You can tell she meant business by the number of exclamation points she used. I think that I would have used more. That, or I would have typed in all caps WITH the exclamation points. And, as proof of these new "pets," she attached this picture, which was taken from her porch.