Coblog Two: All About Us

Over the holidays, Brianne and I got together to try something new: coblogging. We have a long history of writing together. Song parodies, journal entries, and even a series of books called Penpals. There were four books, and they centered around four girls who wrote letters back and forth. Hey Brianne, we should start a new series! We'll call it Blogpals.

I digress. Part One of our coblogging celebration can be found here on Brianne's blog. Part Two is below:

B: As promised, Allison and I are back for Part 2 of the Coblogstravaganza. Ar first I felt kind of like we were cheating with this one, since we're not actually sitting together in a room typing on the same computer. But then it occurred to me: how many bloggers actually get together in the same room to collaborate? We went above and beyond the call of duty, by gosh.

A: Ah yes, the call to blog. If I had lived during World War II, that's what I would have done on the homefront. I would have written about myself.

B: And a great comfort it would have been to all of the boys in uniform. Just like this will be. Anyway, we thought it might be interesting to go over the history of our friendship. Not to make it sound like some huge epic, but 21 years and counting ain't too shabby. Especially when you're currently 28.

A. No Brianne, this is epic. It started at Grewenow Elementary in 1986. First day of first grade. I don't remember how we met, although I have a vague memory of lockers being involved. Did we have lockers next to each other? God, what would have happened if my locker had been next to Dustin's (the class bad boy who would years later stab someone with a pencil)? What a different life I would have led.

B: Our lockers were definitely next to each other. One (yours?) was at the end of a row, just to the left of the classroom door, and the other was next to it. I can picture us standing there - craaaazy. My other first grade memories of us are a jumble of billy goat stew and billy goat spareribs (oh I'm sorry, were other people supposed to understand this?) and playing outside at recess. Then second grade was the only year we weren't in the same class.

A: Yeah, isn't it funny? The invisible forces in the teachers' lounge always put us in class together. My favorite examples of elementary shenanigans (good lord, did I really just say shenanigans?) are the lyrics we wrote to famous songs. Really great-for-a-10-year-old sarcastic stuff like Rudolph the Hunk of Rare Meat. "What do you have in the line of venison today?" We have Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen...

B: I'm still quite proud of those rewritings. Of course, they weren't all famous songs. "The floor was so deep I fell asleep, that's how deep it was! I hit my head so hard, I saw Santa Claus!" If the readers don't recognize the source material... well, it's probably for the best. We also wrote biting, satirical top 10 lists and short stories about teachers and "enemies." I'd try to find one and give an excerpt, but I think I'd be a little ashamed of their meanness now. Kids can be brutal. (And hilarious!) Speaking of enemies, the other things that stand out most from our elementary school career are the Great Fight of Fifth Grade, and our series of books, The Penpals.

A: The Penpals! The closest I will ever come to writing the Great American Novel. An epic tale of friendship, correspondence, moves to Alaska, the Witness Protection Program, movie star boyfriends, gargantuan homes (worth ONE MILLION DOLLARS), and Carribbean cruises. We finished writing the series on the last day of sixth grade, right? The final day of elementary school. Junior hight: we went our separate ways for awhile. Did we get together in ninth grade to write in the journal?

B: Yeah, we did get together in ninth grade. In high school we had a few more classes together, as I recall, at least towards the end. World History comes to mind. We didn't really do much outside of school, but we always had a good time snickering in class or chatting... in class... yeah, I guess we didn't pay too much attention in World History, did we? I remember reading a lot for it, though.

A: That world history class was great. It was the one time in my lame, rule-following life that I blew things off. I remember asking for a library pass to go study for a project, and using the pass to sneak out of the building and get snacks from PDQ. I was wild!! We did a project on the Crusades too - I remember unrealized plans to draw little dying crusaders and pipe in audio: "God wiiiiills it!" Since high school it's been emails, Christmas get-togethers in Kenosha, and the occasional visit somewhere else. You came to DC a couple times (I believe there were Wilco concerts involved), we hit up Baltimore together, and I spent an evening in Madison before I left for China.

B: Although it's not a bad supposition, only one of my visits to you in DC was related to a concert. And I'd almost forgotten our Greyhound journey to Baltimore! Travelin' in style. On one of those visits we also painted pottery - my bowl was broken in an unfortunate moving accident a couple years later, but I remember it fondly.

A: The footed bowl was broken? Damn. Anyhow, to close, what do you say we each share one more, random memory from our illustrious past. My pick: the last day of 4th(?) grade. You and I were walking out of the building at the end of the day, carrying home all the crap from our desks and lockers. Bryan was with us too. Bryan, dreamy Bryan. We'd both had crushes on him at some point in the year, and as the three of us walked out across the playground we felt giddy. Unfortunately for him, Nick crossed our paths just then. We all liked Nick - in fact, weren't he and Bryan best friends? - but for some reason we decided to rip the locker/desk crap out of his hands, tear the bags open, and destroy all his stuff. It was insane. We poured glue all over his gym clothes, tore up his notebooks, and scattered his papers across the playground. We were laughing like maniacs and he just kind of stood there, helplessly, whining "c'mon guys, don't..." When we were done, we each smiled at him and said something like "hey Nick, have a great summer! We'll see you in September." And then we walked off.

B: I had forgotten that! Reading about it now made me laugh and almost snort Bigelow Lemon Lift tea up my nose (I am drinking Bigelow Lemon lift tea at the moment. Otherwise that would just be weird.) Okay, here's my random memory. Melissa's slumber party for her tenth bithday. I remember it being a fun night in general - we all watched Hairspray (the original!) and played games and such. After the movie, when "official" bedtime came, everyone went upstairs to Melissa's room for more games of Skeletons in the Closet, Truth or Dare, hair braiding, makeup experimentation, etc. But eventually the other wimps wanted to go to sleep, and you and I actually moved our sleeping bags out into the hallway so we could stay up longer. There was a whole lot of giggling involved. Did we get shushed by her mom and Louie? It seems like we did. (Editor's note: yes, we did.)