How I Met Tami

In my life, I have three best friends that I have known most of my life. I call them the the three t's, Tami, Traci, and Trisha. They are the sisters I never had but always wanted and know way way too much about my personal genesis.

This is all about Tami. I met Tami on the first day of kindergarden (i spelt that the way it sounds, you'll notice i do that alot). Tami was five and i was four. We were in Mrs Zanders morning class. Tami and I enjoyed many a cracker and milk together.

I have known this girl SOLID for 45 years. The only people I've known longer is my parents and sisters. We've been together through deaths, births, marriages (although i missed her first one because i had issues of my own, but that's a whole other post). Anyiwascrazyatthetime, we've been through it all. Most of it i can't write about because my boys might read this someday, and i am such not the rolemodel in this case.

Sometimes I call her Tami, sometimes Tam Tam, and even Tamala. I cannot imagine how different my life, with every circumstance still the same, except Tami wasn't there, would be today. She is part of my second hand DNA, and who I am today. That's how her constant presence has impacted my life. I know how schmaltzy (yiddish for thick and cheesy) this sounds, but it is one of the most profound relationships I have.

I have many Tami stories to share with you in the future. I've already asked her permission to open the vaults. She has had very blond hair and what is the epitome of big blue eyes her entire life....so be nice if you see her.

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

I just got back an hour ago after two days in that cultural mecca known as Columbus, Ohio. During the drive, you get to pass through a roughly 25 mile town, which apparently was the Middle of Nowhere. I know this because there are literally no green highway signs the entire 25 miles.

I got subpeoned, which is both difficult to spell and even worse to be the victim of. At work, I'm active in the union, and this chick named Alice got fired during her three month probation period two years ago. She's suing the union for 'non-representation' and luck be a Paula tonite, my name is all over it. So I had to drive two hours to spend the night at the Best Western by the expressway, be prepped by a very smart but scary lawyer named Dick, and the next day spend eight straight hours in a courtroom, with only a half hour break, listening to testimony I could care less about, and being questioned by a lawyer, who by the way, was a very nice and smart lady, whose face was purple by the time she got done with me. And it SUCKED ASS.

The funny thing was that I had really gone to the wall for Alice and this was a real fuck you. But, you know what, I felt so much compassion for her. She looked so sad and tired. Her lawyers mispronounced her name the entire eight hours. They kept calling her Anna and when her lawyer was grilling me, I wanted to say 'hey, atleast I know how to pronounce her name right'.

And then they produce these emails as evidence of her emailing me, and claimed I never responded. The thing was, the emails had so very obviously been cut and pasted onto one sheet. And, mysteriously, the only ones on it were from her. She omitted all of my reponses, but I couldn't testify to it because i was not an "expert witness"...yeah, fine, whatever. So they ask where are my copies of the emails?, and I ofcourse don't have them because I don't keep shit, mostly because even if I keep it I can't find it when I need it anyway. For God's sake, this all happened two years ago!

So, after advocating for Alice, I was rewarded with a law suit, a trip to Columbus, one dinner, and one lunch, two days of my life i'll never get back, and I paid for my own gas. So there you have it, no good deed goes unpunished.

It All Started in Chicago

My mother and father both lived in Chicago. My Aunt Binnie was my mothers best friend, and that's how she met my father. My Grandma Annie paid my father, Larry, to ask my mother, Myra, on a date. Originally, he did it for the money. Then he spent an evening with my mother, and returned the money to Grandma Annie when he got home. They were married less than a year later.

That led to my birth in 1961. I am the third and youngest of three sisters. We lived on the south side of Chicago and we were all born at Michael Reese Hosptial.

I was almost six months old when my first near death issue arose. We had a nanny named Gertrude, and she had found me in my crib grey and lethargic. When they rushed me to the hospital, they found out I was dehydrated and near death from a long bout with the flu.

My mother tells the story about how she stayed with me in the hospital for several days as my health teetered back and forth. They had to feed me through my ankle, and I still have the scar to this day. It's on my right ankle and has slightly bothered me all my life. I'm convinced it's all in my head, like some kind of psychic scar.

So....I'm thinking this was my only drama during that chapter of my life. Last year, I'm at my sister Beths house and we're looking at pictures. There is an old photo of us with my mom, her mother Grandma Honey, and my sisters and me sitting by a pool in Florida. I was roughly 2 years old. Beth points at the picture and says "oh yeah, that's the day we found you floating face down in the swimming pool". This I never heard of. I asked my mother about it later, and while she didn't deny it, she said she couldn't remember it either. Beth was 5 years old at the time of the incident, so she remembered it pretty well.