the people who shape us and mold us, the ones who touch our lives but leave no marks....

sometimes people come into your life and touch you. they shape who you are and mold who you are to become. some of them stay by your side forever, while some of them come and go; yet others are there all too briefly - days, months or years, the time passes in the blink of an eye. each of these friends or lovers, teachers or kindred souls is as inseparable from who we are as a thumb print left in wax.

tonight, my first time on the email machine in just over two weeks, i had a wonderful surprise waiting in my email - Grace Moore, my high school french teacher, head of the language department and sometimes it seemed my only friend, emailed me. i have wondered for 20+ years since graduating what had happened to her and where she went, i heard several years ago that she may have passed away, and i hadn't ever been in touch again after leaving high school to let her know not only was i happy, but i was ok, that i was forever in her debt for giving me all the kindness and support, courage, faith and inspiration i would ever need to find myself along the road she helped me locate. her email moved me to tears because outside of my family, she is the longest and most loving supporter and cheerleader of this simple lifetime and as old as she may be now, she cared enough to ask me about myself and my life and of all people, i know she really wants to know.

i also had an email from classmates.com. i hate that website. i graduated from kittatinny regional high school 20 years ago last june, and i've never been invited to a single reunion, nor ever been contacted except by accident when i run in to someone who recognizes me, thankfully, i'm no longer that socially awkward (on the outside atleast) tall, skinny, gangly and unattractive kid that no one wanted to eat lunch with anymore, and now they don't recognize me unless they hear my name first. i'm lucky, i was fortunate to be blessed with a good gene pool i guess, so this ugly duckling, though always paddling like dickens beneath, looks like a swan on the surface even when sinking sometimes....they've all aged and look like people do when they work hard, and have kids and life happening to them....i've avoided that and without the stress of kids, i guess, i look way younger than most of them, even though i've had enough chemicals pumped through my body to pickle me several times over and gray my hair, i'm still winning in their rat race. that said, i wonder why they use such sly tactics in their planning of the event? they just sent an email out to invite us to our reunion which turns out is this saturday...luckily, it's not much of a reunion so i no loss on the late invite or my decision to not attend but go to fire island instead? i mean really, 20 years and the best they can pull together is have us come to the football field for a game for 3 hours? i'm guessing someone has a kid playing and they're selling hotdogs that day unless they have us as the excuse....lame.