OK, so how do I compete with American Freakin' Idol?

I haven't thought about Jeff Peabody for a while. But now that I've started, hoo boy. There's a lot there. He and I went to school together, from South Bay Elementary through North Thurston High. He got a ventriloquist dummy, and I got my parents to get me one (the slightly off-brand version). He wore a denim outfit/hat, and I wore an outfit/hat. And unlike him, I got to wear my hat in class, because my hat was viewed as part of my ensemble, and his wasn't (ha!). We were in band together. We both sang. We tried to stage "West Side Story" in sixth grade. (I don't remember why it didn't work out, but I do remember the words to Sgt. Krupke song.)

Anyway, his musical skills got him a lot farther than mine: I just saw that he won the freakin' American Idol songwriter's competition last year. Jordin Sparks sang not just any song when she won, but his song: "This is My Now." Holy crap! (That's Jeff on the right in the picture). I am now officially at peace with the idea that Jeff is the leading man I will never be (yeah, it took me a long time to realize some of the dynamics of our relationship). Good for him! I'd like to think that perhaps I in some way inspired him to achieve as he inspired me.

Funnily enough, we've ended up living near each other. He's a pastor at a church not far from our house. And it sounds like the kind of church I might like (click here to read his sermon that name checks Stretch Armstrong, C.S. Lewis and Kung Fu Panda). But unless something has changed (and a girl can dream), his Christianity isn't the kind that's OK with the gay thing. And I'm not interested in sullying the warm feelings I have about our past with judgements about who I am (and who I always was, really). So I'll just send good wishes to Jeff from afar.

Old school friends .... Jeff/Geoff edition

So last night I was spending a little time online, and decided to take a look at my high school's Web site (North Thurston High in Lacey, home of the Rams). I think it was because I've been getting a lot of those "see who's looking for you!" emails from Classmates.com or whatever. Anyway, after seeing that one of my high school pals is still(!) teaching at our old school (kudos to you Nani Duvall, formerly Nani Currie), I decided to google two of the boys who had been extremely important to me back in the day, starting at South Bay Elementary: Geoff Corbin and Jeff Peabody. Like their first names, they were alike but different. Both played trumpet. Both were supercute. Both were smart. They looked similar and dressed fashionably. Jeff, I think I met in second grade. Maybe it was first, when I got moved up after half a year of kindergarten (something Jeff didn't do, by golly!). Geoff, I didn't meet until 6th grade, I think, and I crushed on him immediately. Jeff and I had more of a "frenemies" relationship. I felt extremely competitive with him, yet I knew on some level that he'd win everything unless I got creative. He was better-looking, smoother, smarter in many ways, more disciplined. But I was scrappier, funnier and possibly better in sports. Not sure about that, but I'll claim it anyway (I don't remember him playing on three sports teams in high school!).

We were all in band together. Jeff and I were in the "gifted" program together. We graduated in the top-10 together. "Jeff and Steph" were frequently mentioned in the same breath, and I'd say that we had a cousin-ish relationship. Lots of shared history, a certain connection, yet some very different elements family-wise and otherwise. As we grew older, we spent less time together, though I was never truly close to anyone in high school except Lynda (Fryhover) Gould.

The passage of time for me means that I forget a lot of stuff, especially (mercifully), the stuff that might hurt. So I can look back at my time with the Jeff/Geoff duo and it's a fairly shiny thing that amuses me greatly. And when I find them online, as I did last night, I am flooded with warm nostalgia. Mostly. More on that soon.

Wall-E and EVE as drawn by ...

My boy Ed. Pretty cool, huh? The movie has done the unbelievable -- supplanted Cars as the boys' fave.

At the Storm game

It is our first Storm game in more than two years, and so far so great, except Eddie is still afraid of the team's fuzzy mascot, Doppler. We came up spur-of-the-moment style, picked up our tix from a guy outside the building for half-price, and made it in to our pleasantly nice seats just before tipoff. Yeah!