No, I’m not offering dessert, though the buffet will open after the presentation. No, for post 500, I’ve decided to share a memory. A memory of a youth retreat I cherish called Antioch. It was the rarest of rare things: a non-judgmental environment where hugs and caring were freely given. Add to that the fact it was run by teenagers for teenagers, and it became rarer still. All the self esteem I have is from those years. Its a foundation of caring I still stand on, and so I share this happy memory with you.
Have you ever heard of the group hug known as a jelly roll? You all stand in a line side to side clasping hands. The leader at the front of the line runs out a bit and begins to spin wrapping the line around her. As more and more are in the center the line runs faster to wrap around pulled by the spinning middle. Laughter is all around from running hand in hand like a childhood game, from being squashed close and sandwiched between you friends, or just from being in a group you can be this silly in. When last person wraps around you all squeeze tight in one huge hug and then separate as best you can giggling.
That was just one of things we did to build trust in each other. A shared experience we had to bind us just a little bit closer. There are over 17,000 people on this board. Despite the sniping in the Pit or the heated debates, I’ll always think of this board as a place to draw strength from. A place to laugh and to learn and to call out for help and have that call answered.
Over 17,000 thousand people. Imagine the size of the jelly roll that would make. Grasp hands with your neighbor and join it. Laugh as you run and spin and collide with whoever is lucky enough to be sandwiched beside you.
Share a memory as warm and live-giving as a hug with us. Spread the word to your friends to come and do likewise. I’ve seen how open you all are. You have no problems sharing sexual escapades, or salmon recipes, or horrible puns, or stories involving livestock. Join the spinning line and share some warmth with us.
All this talk of jelly rolls makes me hungry. I guess its time for lunch here. But how could I leave without saying “Happy 500” to that sweetie, Verrain? So I won’t leave without doing just that.
Happy 500! And may a thousand cockatoos light on your house to carry it to your dream place.
[sub]I told you I was hungry. I didn’t say that I was a great writer of well-wishes.[/sub]
<chuckle> Well I’m glad my story has been well recieved, but I’m hoping some people out there will their own. Though I’ll admit Fiver Reema is a warm uplifting memory it really doesn’t help the board at large.
Come on people read and share and tell your friends to read and share! Remember, only you can prevent forest fires and my thread from slipping into obscurity!
P.S. I heard wings on the roof. It might just be pigeons, but I’m hoping its not.
Happy 5-0-0, Verrain. Yes, the first thing that popped into my head was the dessert snack. (I’m enamored of anything sweet.) But the other jelly roll sounds sweet, too. You rock and the SDMB is better for having you.
Ooh, jellyrolls, giggling, sweetness, and light. YUM. Congrats on your 500th, Verrain, and thanks for giving me the image of a human pastry of love.
As far as a story, well, there’s what our doggy, Shnookums, does every night. She has to sleep with everyone in the house, even if it’s for a few hours. So each night, she’ll start with one family member, sleep with them for a bit, get up and go to the next person and sleep with them a bit, and so on. My family and I feel particularly loved as we cuddle and struggle with Shnookums to find space in the bed.
Hmmm…I really can’t think of anything. How 'bout - Whenever my niece, Marissa, sees my other niece, Kalea, doing something so simple as dropping a toy, she giggles so much that she gets that belly laugh. You know, the kind that sounds like she might choke if she isn’t careful. It is so darn cute!
Um, our puppy TP’d the backyard the other day. Took a full roll of toilet paper and shredded it. Wait that isn’t cute or something I want to remember.
Oh, here is something memorable. My friends and I went to lunch for my friend Jo’s birthday on Saturday. It was so fun just talking to them for two hours. Something we haven’t done in a long time. They are the only people that I know, besides here, of course, that can get me laughing for a long time. And then, AND THEN, my friend brought up a story that made me laugh, really long and hard. I know that people in that restaurant (The Cheesecake Factory[sup]TM[/sup]) were probably looking at me weird, but who cares? I was with my best friends.
I went to my parent’s place in the northern part of my state a few months ago and my sister went with us. Anyway, my sister and I were sitting on the couch and singing a song that her son had made up about where he lives. So we started making up other words to it. Oh, gawd, it was soooo funny. My mom was sleeping on a recliner in the same room. She didn’t stir. I had even hit my head on the wall behind me because of my fit of laughter. Then we took her picture. Hee, hee, hee. We are so mischievous. (hmmm. that doesn’t look spelled right. Oh, well. :shrug: )
At the medical school where I study, we have an annual dinner where it’s traditional for each year group to produce a 5-minute film about anything and everything that expresses what they’ve been up to that year. This year, for the beginning of our film, we decided to make words with our bodies (you know, Sesame Street style). The guy who was filming went up the highest tower on campus (slightly illegal, but no harm done) and we all hid behind the trees, then ran out and made the words “2nd YEARS”, then formed a big group-hug sort of clump in the middle, then ran out again and made “ROCK!” There was lots of screaming and giggling and laughing and it was really, really cool. The video looked awesome, and we were all really pleased cos we had almost our whole year group involved in it (whereas usually it’s just left up to five or ten people).
This the kind of memory you were after, Verrain ? It certainly made me feel all warm and fuzzy
I used to have a cat. His name was Mister Bo Jangles. My sister named him, because I wasn’t born yet when he was. He was a barn cat. This was back when we lived actually on the farm property, obviously. When I was two months old we moved to a house, and we brought Bo with us. And then when I was seven we moved to a trailer that was on property owned by a completely different farm. And that’s when this story took place. While living in the trailer.
Bo was eighteen years old when I was 17. He looked like Richard Petty, because all the fur on the top of his head had gotten rubbed out from being petted too much (or so my mother says) and it grew all curly, just like Richard Petty’s. Plus his chin got kinda wobbly-looking, reminding me of Richard Petty’s un-wobbly but still kinda jutting chin, and especially now that Petty has a goatee. And Richard Petty just looks like a cat anyway. Not a fat furry cat, of course. A narrow, bony-faced cat. And that’s what Bo was. If you put a cowboy hat and mirrored sunglasses on Bo he would look just like Richard Petty. I used to have a picture to prove it but I lost it when I moved.
Anyway, Bo used to sit on our front porch, looking like Richard Petty and basking in the sunlight. And the UPS guy would come to deliver a package, and Bo would say hello. Only in cat language, hello = meow. And in Bo’s version of cat language, meow = mrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeerrrrrrrr… well, you get the picture. A long, drawn-out meow that sounded like a creaky door. And it scared the UPS guy, and the UPS guy refused to come up on our porch. He’d stand on the walkway shouting “Package for [racinmommi]!” until one of us came out to save him from the Dread Kitty Jangles.
It was funny.
