#25 Vicki and Cows and Moons and such..........

Little do people know but the cow really "flew" not jumped over the moon"
Some countries view the cow as a sacred animal.  I don't know exactly why they call them sacred but my friend , the one dressed as a cow...when I found her..... is sacred to me.

My beautiful friend Vicki.

You see I met her back in the olden days ........the days in which couponers and rebaters united through magazines and not the internet! I found the refunding magazine on a grocery store bulletin board, I subscribed to it......  the over priced newsprint magazine and then I waited impatiently for my refund magazine every month.  "Refund Express"   I loved it.  I would grab my hi-lighter and my magic marker and get to work the minute it would arrive.   Section by section I would read every word.  i would circle the ads , the forms, the people and the ideas I was interested in.  Mostly I was interested in SMP (specially marked package sightings) and "New Forms" to look for. People actually sent in copies of the forms that they would find and get credit for them in the magazine earning extra issues if they were first.   The editor really made out on this deal because she was the editor, she got at least one copy of every imaginable form PLUS the money for the subscriptions, and the ads.  She was definitely on to something. She used the cheapest paper available and mostly printed in black and white.  The kind of print that got on your hands when you read it.  I would end up with some of it on my face, everytime......  I don't remember when they went to color but when they did the cover was the first thing to be printed that way.  If you were featured on the cover or inside through writing a story of some sort you also earned extra entries.  

Me, being the writer and photographer I have always been submitted articles with photos often following all of the rules and was featured inside the magazine frequently.  I never tried to be a "cover girl" at the time... but this girl, I am writing about now, Vicki, well that was right up her alley!

It was Mardi-Gras time in New Orleans, my home town....I was homesick....very homesick...... and I got my magazine in the mail. Vicki and her fiance, Sam were on the cover.  They were dressed in full cow costumes walking around the quarter picking out "kodak" proofs of purchase symbols from the trash cans on bourbon street!   I was also collecting the proofs at the time to acquire the stuffed animals

http://floresecoreseamores.blogspot.com

SIDENOTE:   the kolorkins (there is a set of 7 and I wanted them for my kids.  I wish I still had them today , for me!)

• Shutter
• Snap
• Flash
• Rewind
• Zoom
• Focus
• Click

I wouldn't have to have them all but I would love a few of them! :) 

Not only were they picking the proofs I wanted they also lived in the town that I loved and missed so much, the town I graduated high school in, the town I lived in as a teen ager, NEW ORLEANS.  I couldn't contact her fast enough!  She was going by her maiden name then and was marrying the wonderful man she is still with today, Sam.  I wrote her a letter.....

Dear Vicki........... would you be my penpal? Like the girls in the movie Beaches......... a friendship blossomed and grew through the mail over time, growing up, falling down and everything in between......

LOL........ well yep not only did she answer right away she did so with a zeal...... and the friendship began......

We wrote letters, shared deals, concocted ways to score bigger and better deals than we could alone, shared secrets..... and formed a sisterhood between us.... We talked as often as we could on the phone (thank God she had an 800 # at work) and grew up 1000 miles apart together.

Over time... Vicki and I have visited in person several times.  She and her husband have visited me in VA ....... traveling so far to meet me "the axe murderer" that I could have been but most often I see them on my trips "home."

I love to get mail from Vicki to this day,  I can spot her handwriting on the envelopes that sometimes contain coupons, newspaper articles, cards with sweet notes or maybe a list of some good contests I should enter.

We are kindred spirits in all kinds of ways.  I even taught her how to be a mystery shopper and merchandiser over the telephone!  She doesn't do anything "kind of" she does it ALL THE WAY........ and does it well....... thats why she rose to the top in her district and now is the supervisor/trainer for others and not doing "grunt" work anymore.  

I so look up to Vicki....... she is a real go getter.... someone who doesn't settle ...someone who gets the job done.......EVERYTIME.   She can do the impossible , taking care of herself, her husband, her family and friends and still finding time to work full time, enter contests and oh yea coupon too..... even her BOX MEN are spoiled.

We have won, lost, given and received together.  We have watched each other from afar and been each others counselor, sounding board and shoulders through thick and thin.

We have made new friends together and cheered each other on through lifes challenges and triumphs....... I have her picture on my desktop that reads........ "a smile is the closest distance between two hearts" ....... 

My heart is bigger and more full because of her love thats for sure.

I can't tell you how many times I have thanked God for having Vicki and her husband Sam in my life.  I look at my wrist as I type this and look at the wing on my leather band and I hear Sam's voice saying "you wear this and you will always have an angel watching over you." 

I love that sentiment but I smiled and secretly thought of the cow....with wings.........flying over the moon........I wear it almost everyday and think about how they show me through actions and words how to make the impossible incarnate. 

 

#2 "Prissy" My Ya-Ya Sister, Laura

You would think that "prissy" is something you would call someone you don't like....but in my case... in this case ........it is quite the contrary, "prissy" in my mind should be short for "princess" and nothing less.  She was the cutest girl I had ever seen........ she lived in the big house across the street...........she was my first best friend,  "PRISSY."

It had been around 39 or 40 years since I had actually seen her..  but I would recognize her anywhere...........she had the same face, the same smile the same heart that I loved so long ago.



I have .... memories...... of playing make believe, running barefoot through the yard,  playing fetch with my German Shephard, going to birthday parties together and coloring in coloring books with our dolls propped up beside us. These are just a few of the times I remember so vividly.  I am sure we got in mischief together.......although I don't remember any of those specifics. :)

Prissy recalled a story from her childhood and told it to me when we reunited last year........she remembers getting a spanking from her parents........ because she told everyone in the neighborhood that her "Mom & Dad were getting a divorce."  Prissy didn't know what a "divorce" was but she knew she wanted her parents to have one.  I had told her on one of my visits from VA, that my parents were getting one of those.   Prissy knew that this had to be a good thing because when this happened you could "live at the beach and go fishing on a yacht".........just like the one I showed her on my step fathers business card.  She says that she still has this card tucked away somewhere with that Charter Boat picture on it.  She imagined my life being "charmed" and wanted to share in the "adventure" and I longed to be living hers.


I wonder if I hadn't moved if I would have had more memories of the same or if through the years we would have grown apart like I see so many do?  I would like to think that  she and I would have been there for each other have too through thick and thin. . I would be willing to bet if we had been allowed to grow up together we would have been just like the characters in the DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA YA SISTERHOOD. ****which is set in a small parish of Louisiana and the Theme Song "details in the fabric" (again ironically) is sung by Jason Mraz (one of my faves from VA).  Our  friendship at such an early age taught me what it was like to have a true friend, and thru the years ......we loved each other unconditionally even if from afar, we laughed and learned together without judgement but rather with wonder and charm.

Our lives have been parallel in some ways and opposites in others but we ended up with much the same personality and mannerisms.  We met again in December 2009 thanks to Facebook and the fact that she was visiting her youngest son who currently lives in the same town as my daughter in Virgina!

We both love New Orleans and have both lived there, we both have had roller coaster lives and we are now both Grandparents of an autistic child.  We both believe in Karma and  both grab life by the horns and ride as hard as we can.............

It was one of the best Christmas presents I ever had in 2009..........seeing my first BFF again after all of these years.  When we said good-bye ....Prissy's words couldn't have been sweeter or more needed at the moment..... "I have always loved you" echoed in my heart and my mind all the way home............this is where I got the idea......the notion ........the standard...... that  I  still set and tried to hold my friendships to (some successfully and others not so much) through the years.


We are all grown up now and some people refer to you as "Laura" which is a lovely grown up name...... but to me you will always be my ......"Prissy" the princess that lived across the street in the big house on the hill.