Chiming in

Okay, so I hope this is the right place to add some input to this T & L All Girl Breakout, (as I like to put it). Nanner here, otherwise known as Nancy S Petersen NSP.

The "girls" are making this thing happen because, I wanted to show them the great untamed WEST. HA HA!! I live out here where Indians still live on Reservations, and Cowboys still chase, uh, cows, and our best and most direct form of communication is sending up smoke signals, because the cell service and internet connections are not always reliable.

There is a marked difference in culture from the world of paved roads, tall buildings and asphalt parking lots, to the dirt roads that lead to vast fields of wide open prairie, broken by strips of wheat and millet fields, and down into the valley of corn and dry edible bean circles on irrigated farm land. I agree that this will be a journey of a lifetime for all of us beginning in Chicago and moving west to the Black Hills of South Dakota, then on to our humble little place in the heart of the panhandle of Nebraska.

I am so excited to have them visit, and thrilled to meet them in the big, booming town of Chicago (I love Chicago). A week doesn't seem long enough to really see and experience it all, but we will make it happen.

Have not purchased my ticket to Chicago, yet, but will this week. Nailing down some dates with my kids who live in the heart of Chicago.

Girls from WDHS class of 76, LET'S DO THIS THING!!! (Bring yer cowgirl boots, and a good hat :) The sun beats heavy and the snakes strike low, or something like that....

We're getting there: Tickets purchased

Today, three of the T&L group purchased their plane tickets! Whoo hoo! MaryAnn (MAP) Deb BG (DBG), and Patty (PS). We're still hoping Debbie PC will change her mind and join us. We are also hoping that Carol's damn divorce doesn't get in the way of her joining us! I know she hopes the same. MAP and DBG will leave Philly and PS will leave Manchester, NH on Tuesday June 29 and meet in Chicago. We think that that Nancy (NSP) will already be there to meet us. We hope to catch up with some area high school classmates while we're there. We added an extra day to our trip so that we can visit with Leslie Dierolf Pinkham (LDP) in Denver. MAP and DBG will fly Denver to Philly and PS Denver to Boston on Weds, July 7th. Hopefully, soon we'll know how many others will be coming along so we will know what size vehicle to rent in Chicago.

Ok so I'm supposed to be working on a research project right now. Instead? I'm doing this blog and just finished filling out my 2010 March Madness bracket! Back to work for me. :-(

I'm really looking forward to this trip!

The Journey Has Begun

In 2007, I gathered with old (no pun intended) friends in NJ for a "30 Something" reunion (given that our high school graduation date was 1976. What's a year or two between friends, anyway? Admittedly, I was nervous. I moved to New England, specifically NH, about 20 years earlier and lost touch with most of my former high school classmates. I made the 7 hour drive to visit family and to attend the reunion.

I was amazed at how great everyone looked! Most of us "aged well", especially the women! Some of us got to talking about turning 50, how we used to think 50 was so old. I don't recall where the idea came from but we talked about a road trip, just women, to go visit our friend, Nancy, on her farm in Nebraska. That was 3 years ago.

Yesterday, several of us gathered on a conference call and finally put our plans in place. The beauty of Web 2.0 technology and social networking, specifically Facebook, enabled us to stay in touch and facilitated our plans.

The interesting thing is that I didn't really hang out with these wonderful women in high school. I knew them, but they weren't part of my very small circle of friends. I say small circle not because I wanted it to be exclusive in any way, but because it was what it was. My peer group was pretty much my field hockey girls: Lynn Rich and Donna Dorshimer. More later on high school peer pressures and people's assumptions. Bottom line: high school was and still is a tough time for kids.

MaryAnn Marino Potts and I lived in the same neighborhood and went to St. Matthew's School together in first and second grade. I began public school in the third grade.

Debbie Press-Costello (who unfortunately had to drop out of our trip yesterday because of her jet setting world travels takes her away from her place of employment...you know...she had to pace herself ) and I were friends in early elementary school.

Carol Lind Zeoli and I were also friends in later elementary school and junior high.

I knew Debbie Burness-Gasparovic in high school, liked her, but we never really hung out.

I knew of, but really didn't know Nancy Snyder Peterson.

After the 30+ reunion, I discovered that I have more in common with these wonderful women in adulthood than I did in my youth. We've been getting to know each other little by little via Facebook and email. I find what little I know of their lives already amazing. I look forward to learning more about them.

It should be a really cool trip. At the end of June 2010, we plan to fly out to Chicago and meet there to begin our journey. We'll see the city and then hit the road in a rented van to see the sites, including Mt. Rushmore, on our way to Nancy's farm. We hope to connect with other former classmates along the way.

This is the beginning of our chronicle, our excellent adventure, our Thelma and Louise 2010 style trip. Stay tuned.

Getting ready to get on the road

This trip has been a long time in the "We should do this" stage and now we are moving into the planning stage. It is exciting to be planning a week with women who I have reconnected with over the past three years. I can't express how much I am looking forward to connecting and reconnecting with new and old friends. The journey is already fabulous, and I'm excited to be traveling to a part of the country that I have never visited.

Our lives crossed paths during our high school ( and for some elementary years), and for many of us, all of us, here or there at class reunions. Since our last reunion in 2007, many of us have been in touch and through Facebook actually, we've reconnected with more and more.

We all realize now that we had more in common with each other than we previously thought and our common tie is bringing us on this girls only- class of 76 journey!