F. A. R. T.

Dear Friends,

Thank you for joining us on this fine Wednesday. Cheryl here. I have two big acts to follow this week. First Heather brought us to tears about savoring the moments of our life. And then Claudia had a fun day with our Fancy Flours Cookie Cutter Challenge. The mermaid was the winner. Yay! I can't wait to see how she's decorated. But today I'm here to announce that next Monday, June 8th is National Friendship Day. Be in this moment with me.

I could tell you about all the friendships that I have savored through the years with my best friends but that would take forever. If you're as fortunate as I have been then you have several best friends through the years. There was my very first friend, Cassie, that I wanted to be twins with. We dressed alike in our Tina Tomato and Lucy Lemon shirts. Or I could tell you about my Kristi that I watched scary movies with. There's her sister Johnanna. We were the wildest of friends. (I say "were" because I'm not wild anymore.) And there's DeDe and Darci and Angie and, and, and! I different friend for a different time in my life and I cherish them all.

I love my old and new friends and what better way to celebrate those friendships than by picking out something small to send them to let them know that you appreciate and love them. It's totally out of the blue and unexpected. But what? What are you going to send these people that stand by you no matter what? These people that have seen you cry the "ugly cry" and laughed until you had tears coming down your face and held your hair while you puked!

I'm all about making my friends laugh so what better way than to provide some fun napkins like the ones below. These say r.i.c.h. - Relax, it's cocktail hour, s.l.u.t.s. - Southern ladies up to something, and p.o.o.l. - Perfect outlook on life. Hop on over to Homewetbar.com to order some for your friends or shoot, give some to yourself. You can share them with your friends at your next party.

Or, another fun idea are these party cups. There are many to choose from over at Connexxions but these three are my favorites. Everyone fills in there fun saying for the chosen cup. These say:

• It's not a party 'til _______
• I'm gettin' my ________ on!
• _______ by day _________ by night

Tell me those aren't fun. Do you want to take a shot at filling in the blanks? It could be fun.

Okay, but I understand you may not have time to place an order and get it sent off to your friend in time so what about this. You may or may not remember that Claudia collects things that are big. My aunt was having a birthday in February and I was thinking about what I could send her. Something inexpensive but something that would make an impression that said, "Hey, I think you're special." I was pondering Claudia's collection of all things big and thought of a Big Postcard.

I took a piece of poster board and cut it so that it was about 14 inches tall and 22 inches wide (the 22 inches is the short side of a regular sheet of poster board.) I pulled out the finger paints and let my creative boys go to town. JB started painting a picture of a girl that sort of resembled my aunt. She had blond hair. Drew drew a heart that said "Happy B-Day" in it. I started adding flowers all over. We called it Picasso's Birthday Girl. On the opposite side I wrote a big note that said Happy Birthday and put her address.

The workers at the post office laughed at me. The people in line laughed at me. Heck, I laughed at me standing in line with an over sized postcard painted with a funny looking girl on it. It cost about $1.5o to mail and it was worth every penny. My aunt called us and you could just tell by the laughter in her voice how much she loved it, which in turn made me very happy. You don't have to be an artist to do it. I promise! Just put some bright color paint on there and go for it- find your inner-childlike-artist. Surely you can remember that person.

I wish I could tell you I was more organized and that I had my over sized friendship postcards painted up and ready to go so you could see pictures but I don't have it done yet.

• Poster board- check.
• Paint- check.
• Time- I won't let you slip away!

I still have some time since the actual day is on Monday, June 8th! And so do you!

Oh, are you wondering what my title, F.A.R.T. has to do with today's post? Just a fun game. Tell me what you think it stands for. It's about friends. Or make up your own fun acronym about friends and share it with us.

Will you do one more thing for me? Please. Will you email us a picture of you with a friend and tell us a quick story about that friend? It can be a friend from your childhood, a new friend, a friend that makes you laugh or just whatever you're in the mood for. Personally, I'd like to see you and your friend as kids but it's up to you. Just email it over to highlowaha218@gmail.com.

Before I go I just want to thank my newest friend Margaret for always sharing such fun times and ideas with me. She found the links to the fun napkins and cups. Thanks Margaret!

Signing off until tomorrow...

Sharing Saturday

Since we are hopeful that there are several new readers in our mix we decided that Saturdays in the month of March by be best used getting to know everyone a little more. Never fear though, in keeping with our promise of an idea a day you are certain to get a new creative idea out of each Saturday post.

For those of you who were around for year one of HLA you might recall Claudia sharing with us her experience at Misty's Potato Soup Party. This party is a time honored tradition amongst Misty's friends and they are allowed to cautiously add women they think would be fun to the mix. Claudia turned out to be the lucky addition Misty selected this year and so she headed into the party only knowing that the invitations were awesome and surely there would be potato soup involved.

What Claudia didn't know was that Misty's friends would use the occasion to play "The Cowgirl Game" or more accurately "Cowgirls Ride the Trail of Truth". The game's intention is to get women to story swap and get to know one another on another level by answering questions in several topical areas. The categories range from "Sex and Body" to "Taste".

While Misty and her friends use this game to reconnect with one another and to get to know new friends I can think of 1001 other uses for a fun game that gets people to share themselves. With that in mind comes today's creative idea. What if you used the Cowgirl game via email (or snail mail would be even better!)? I think highlowaha has been testament to the fact that our communities can certainly be fostered via the USPS and come on, who doesn't like to get mail?

I have to be honest that the implementation of Facebook into my life has reconnected me with friends from high school, college and drum corps that I haven't seen in years not to mention adult cousins and siblings that I get to see far too infrequently. Living far away now creates an added difficulty in getting to see them at reunions or holidays when everyone converges on Northern Kentucky. This means that I am having to rely on my virtual network to maintain those relationships. Thus my suggestion for the Cowgirl Game is born. What if you created a friendship "chain letter" of sorts. Create a list of a circle of friends that are all interconnected...select the first topic and ask the question of the first name on the list...You send them an envelope explaining the directions

#1-Answer the question as truthfully and thoroughly as possible and then select the next question to be answered.

#2-Insert into the envelope with the coverletter and mail to the next name on the list.

#3-The last name on the list forwards their response back to you and the cycle continues.

Ideally your friends would start to get creative and send other notes along with their responses but if not at the very least you are getting to know one another on a deeper level without having to take time out of your busy lives to have a party and even more so allows for friends from across the world to enjoy the Cowgirl Game without having to spend money on airfare.

I'm sure by now your interest is piqued and so let's open our first round of the VIRTUAL cowgirl game. Here's the question for this week hailing from the category "History and Experience":

If I had a daughter what would I tell her?

or

If you have a daughter, what do you want to tell her before she grows up?

Announcements:

Shamrockin! Congratulations to Chaotic who won the Shamrockin' Treat announced on Tuesday by suggesting that she would utilize April 21st as her RAK day. Chaotic expect a treat in your mailbox in the next few days.

RAK Box Winners: Thanks for filling our RAK box for Year Two. Never fear if you haven't yet sent yours as the 18th postcard hasn't yet been received so there is still time (and you can always win when Claudia uses the box for a true RAK!) As promised a drawing was held yesterday evening for another $25 Target gift card and winner was: Peggy Robinson!

Cookbook: Tera hasn't had many submissions turned in yet for the first ever HLA cookbook. Don't forget to send her all your creative (or just scrumptious!) recipes by 3/18 so she can get it pulled together for Mother's Day. Email them to tmichalski05@jcu.edu.

Surprise Surprise!: Our first Surprise Surprise! stunt is just around the corner. Don't forget to create your rainbow that says "Follow "your name's" rainbow to highlowaha!" and drop it in the mail to Julie Schnepp (16630 N. Reems Rd. #1064 Surprise, AZ 85374) no later than 3/13 so that she receives it before St. Patrick's Day. Remember that if your rainbow is followed you will be entered to win a fabulous prize and everyone who participates will get a rainbow patch for their "Patchwork Denim".

Free For All Friday

Oohhh... how I love Free For All Fridays.  There is so much collective creativity among our blog readers, that I inevitably walk away with at least one or two memorable ideas.  Last week we helped Stacie, the woman looking for promotional ideas for her massage business (P.S.  she had her beautiful baby boy on March 7.  His name is Lucian and he was 7 pounds , 12 ounces).  We also passed along some suggestions to Anonymous who was looking for ways to help her toddler. This week we go from moms to graduating seniors.  Put on your thinking caps and lets send some creative ideas to Anonymous who posted...

I have a creativity predicament for you!  I am currently a senior in college preparing to graduate in early May 2008.  I would like to create a small keepsake for my closest friends to remember our time spent together over the past 4 years.  I am a college student, after all, so it can't be anything to expensive, but definitely needs to be something creative and from the heart!  Any help with ideas for this gift would be greatly appreciated.

Once again, in no particular order....

• Build a day:  Make special invitations, inviting everyone to reserve a particular day when the group will take a stroll down memory lane.  Meet early in the morning and have everyone write down one of their favorite things to do with the group.  Experiences might be things such as eating at a particular restaurant, meeting at a particular place on campus for coffee each week, watching movies in someone's residence hall room, or shopping at a local thrift store or retail store.  Once each person has noted their favorite experience on a paper, seal them in envelopes and mix them up.  Then, randomly draw your first card from the stack and go about your business completing the activity.  Move through the rest of the day in random order, doing whatever the next card says.  It doesn't matter if they aren't in a sensible or efficient order. That's part of what will make it memorable.
  
• Something survivor-like:  I'm not an expert on this show, but I seem to remember when it gets down to the final two, the remaining contestants do a walk, carrying their torches and paying tribute to each person who left them game before they did.  As they stop at the torch symbolizing each person, the finalists say something nice about the person.  Maybe you could do a final walk of campus - stopping along the way to pay tribute to each member of your group.  If you really wanted to be fancy, you could plant photographs ahead of time at particular campus locations. Consider beginning late afternoon one day and finishing at dusk in a meaningful location.  If everyone is of-age, you could arrange to have champagne at the final destination (if not, some crazy dean of students might track you down).  
  
• Seal a Time Capsule:  Have each person bring one thing to commemorate their college experience.  Place the items in a box, wrapped in plastic wrap and packaging tape.  Bring a shovel and some flowers then find a non-descript location on campus.  Bury the time capsule and plant your flowers on top as a marker.  Then you and your friends could make a pact to meet back at campus in a designated period of time to unseal the capsule.  This could be extra fun if everyone also wrote a letter to themselves, to be put in the capsule and not read until the capsule is opened.
  
• Last Will and Testament: Purchase a container for each friend and then ask each person participating to a bring a momento and a note to be placed in each other's boxes.  If you have six friends participating, you would have five momentos - one for each of your five friends. Items can be representative of your relationship with one another.  It could be the same thing for everyone (for me, a Starbucks card is how most would remember me) or it could be something different for each person (a favorite t-shirt or yours, a CD they kept asking to borrow).  If you like the sealing-concept from the time capsule, you could seal the boxes and agree on a future date and time when they will be opened.  I might be in Texas, you might be in... say Virginia..., but at 6:00 p.m. one designated day, we all stop what we are doing and open our box.
  

That's my attempt to help.  Good luck and CONGRATULATIONS on graduating... an accomplishment for which you should be VERY proud.  Amy.. if you are out there... you are the queen of bringing closure.  Maybe you will weigh in with a post.  

Dear Mr. Postman: Deliver De Letter De Sooner De Better

When I was eleven years old I visited my friend's house one day after school. We were watching the Big Blue Marble when we got the bright idea to send our names into the show, hoping we would be matched up with the perfect pen pal. Months and months later - well after we'd forgotten about our submissions - Suzie and I each received a letter. Mission accomplished. Matches were made and we got our pen pals. Suzie's pen pal was Pat, a 10 year old boy from North Dakota (as it turns out, a little disappointing for an adolescent girl hoping for a new best friend). As for me... the Blue Marble gods were shining down on me. My pen pal was Karen from Hastings, New Zealand. That's right... half way across the world in what seemed like the most exotic place on earth. Therein began my obsession with pen paling.

Last summer, six months after the arrival of my third son - when it was blatantly clear there was no baby girl in my future - I set out in search of two unsuspecting girls, willing to entertain me and to be my venue for all the fun "girly" things (theme parties, crafts, sticker-swapping, secret codes, and friendship bracelets) that I would otherwise never get to do. My niece from New York city and close family friend from Watkinsville, Georgia seemed like the perfect two.

The Pen Pal Challenge started in late August. I matched up the two girls via mail and they've been letter writing ever since. I live vicariously through them, hearing about the exchange of postcards, pictures, stickers, puzzles, and letters to be decoded with special pens. I periodically send them a small package of pen pal paraphernalia to keep them motivated (but really so I have cause to buy all the fun stuff I'd otherwise couldn't justify). Of course I'm not totally selfless. I told them both if they exchanged 12 pieces of mail each over the course of the school year that I would host them for a girl's weekend in Dallas. Are you kidding? Two 10-11 year old girls for five days! I can't wait. The boys will be shipped off to grandmas, so we can do all things GIRL... stay up late, wearing fun pajamas, eating treats and talking about cool stuff; spreading out at the kitchen table with all kinds of crafts projects; and shopping at the local mall with stops along the way for lunch and manicures. Only four more months until the fun begins.

As for me and Karen, our friendship persists to this day. We don't write or talk nearly as frequently as we did when we were younger, but after two visits from Karen and lots of letters between the two of us, we stay in touch enough to know about big life changes in each others lives. I still haven't made it to Hastings, but visiting the apple orchard she grew up on remains on my Bucket List (if you haven't seen the movie, it's definitely worth seeing).

Letter writing is quickly becoming a lost art, so if I can do my small part to promote pen paling and maybe even develop a friendship along the way, then that is good enough for me. How about you? Do you know two young people you could match up as pen pals? Or, forget matching up two young people, grab a paper and pen and find a young person who could benefit from you reaching out. It will feel good to you and will most assuredly bring a smile to his or her face.

Signing off until tomorrow...