37/365 Maritza

Surprise birthday greetings from you,
who's surprised me before:

with intensity, compassion, need -
with speed, sadness, velvety surface -

joking about cultural differences: your
NYC-Puerto Rican background a far cry
from this small-town-girl?
Maybe not because
we share a love of children,
good food, and the
good women we are.

36/365 Bob H

Forty-one years, you say:
venerable old tree, mottled,
towering, solid foundation for
the college's future.

Your compliments and confidence make
me want to stay . . .

but what's next for us colleagues
as we watch old-timers retire, tidily
provided for by a union that'll
never do the same
for us?

35/365 Susie

Lots of volleyball later,
friends despite extremely
different schedules, temperaments, lifestyles:

testament to your generosity of spirit,
stick-to-it-tiveness, loyalty.

Probably the only friend who knew how bad it got,
you and Kelly, haven for my Uptown
disasters, when I needed to escape, to talk.

Thanks for hitting everything.

34/365 Linda

Briefly always: what's with that?
A quick message is *not*
better than nothing.

But you know that and so
send thin, fake replies purposefully,
keeping at bay feelings and consequences: that
jealous girlfriend has gotta be well-managed.

My advice?
Don't ignore the music in you - *all* the music.

33/365 Sue

Don't really think you do your job as well as I'd like,
Even though you scurry around taping up posters yourself: learn to delegate??
Actually, weirdest are your control issues, when I don't know the agenda:
Now which administrative initiative drives your decisions, your dissembling, your latest switcheroo?

32/365 Julie D

Dr. Rochefort mixed us up in
Latin class: which Julie? You added
Greek, then visited Greece, leading
to Theo-Antigone-Panos: lovely family

that my family enjoys, get-togethers
of like minds, like energies, like
each other: talented folks we eight, continuing
our learning, just not in class

31/365 Stephanie

Your easy charm, your charming ease -
I understand Stefan's liking/loving you,
funny, smart, teasing gal who's found her
"vanilla" guy: an excellent assessment :-)

I look forward to more afternoons
sitting around with books and Kissy-dog:
reading, protecting Pumpkin and Lightning
from their new roommate, their new diet plan ;-D

30/365 Marc

Since junior high, you've been on my radar:
hair glossy as enamel, black as olives.

You excelled in speech contests,
certainly persuading me to
kiss you one seafoam green summer.

Now we both teach English, battling
administrative stupidities, but
still committed to our students' struggles:
our own.

29/365 Larry

Why did I spend most of my return car
trip imagining weekly conversations with
my college's president?

Because the infrastructure's fallen apart,
the college's reputation has plummeted.
But you must want to leave a
legacy, not broken lincoln logs
formerly known as Lakewood College.

I want to help fix it.

28/365 Izabella

Plump as a date, your
arm-crook-ready bulk fit
tidily in my lap at great-grandma's

as I imagined myself "grandmother"
which my sister has become:
familiar phrases, easy hip-rocking,

repeated gentle movements
remind me of my own children:
every baby does this for

every one of us: another miracle

27/365 Scott

Middle brother, visitor of
grandma: a good grandchild

Good, too, at fixing
anything, figuring anything
out, staying with problems until
nothing but the solution's left

My continued connection to things
from our childhood: hunting, fishing,
dogs, trucks, guns, stories about
near-death experiences in the
woods, repeated as comedy

26/365 Marie

Once you tipped the basement painter $45 on an $85 job,
he called Marty who called you, disappointed you'd lied.

He always said, "Why don't you think about it, Marie, and
we'll talk about it later." Neither of you ever did.
You still tear up with the story, and he's been gone
more than two decades.

For 22 years you were age 39 at
Great Northern, even though the paperwork showed
1904 as your birth year, three years older than Marty.

Now proud to be 104, still in 1607 Juno,
your own home full of porcelain dolls you love:
Hummels, "real ones from Germany"
Dresdens Marty bought at the cigar store downtown.

Mind sharp, eyes blurry, weight up to 75 pounds:
you remember chicken dinners for 75 cents in Hugo
with Art and Betty, a few beers and maybe a weak Tom Collins
("If you want lemonade, Marie, order it!" they'd say)

You have strong opinions about Spitzer, "the idiot," and
Hillary: she'd make a good president, you think.

What a pleasure to meet you after all these years.

25/365 Pam L

We're Fosston: of course
Our Lady of Perpetual Help
but also me in fourth, you in sixth:

the "big girls" red-pinnied
basketball after school while
I waited for practice to be over.

Now softball: a good team
mate and sponsor, ready to throw
a party for us all.

24/365 Betsy

Mom of Millie, nearly
Kissy's sister, certainly her
playmate by the river
today, almost spring,
deeply muddy
wet with slush and sogginess.

Driver of a teal Acura, dirty
California plates you'll
exchange next week, post
driver's test.

Facts: Iowa, Macalester,
one block from St. Kate's, blue-eyed,
braided, physician's assistant.

23/365 Betty/Elizabeth/Bess

Name = identity:
to me, you're Grandma

perhaps difficult:
precise, loving, critical, controlled

maker of tomato soup, grilled cheese sandwich lunches:
a bit of applesauce, cottage cheese

maker of perfectly sewn dresses, sunsuits:
maybe even coats

Your loving act of deception, nearly 70 years ago:
gave me my name

22/365 Ellen L

College friends:

one gets married, one doesn't
one finishes her PhD, one doesn't
one has kids in her 20s, one waits 'til her 40s
one gets a job, then gets the other a job
one bikes, one plays softball
one journals, one writes a novel

: all adds up

21/365 Padmini

Would you call it
synchronicity?
Who'd have thought,

two dark girls from opposite sides of the world
thrown together in Atherton Hall:
receiving "B"s from Meserole
driving to Harrisburg

crossing paths again 22 years later
conversations picked up where
we left off,
even better now that we're
grown.

20/365 Meta

1981, could I know you'd be
you,
the person who'd help me be
me?

Remember:
housesitting at Balabans,
shouting matches on the street,
raccoon cap for the kids,
broken xylophone mallet

Listening, arguing, loving, hating, listening.
Silence, connection, anger, silence, connection.

You're essential to my sense of
self.

19/365 Michaeline

For how long have I had the crush?
(one of many):

Fabulous white hair,
years ago, can't remember,
doesn't matter

now

a strong memory
sweet, sad, sure
you know (of course)
yet will never know

now

I'll miss your twinkly-eyed
butch way in the world

the whole world

18/365 Laura S

You're becoming a friend to me and I hope
I'm becoming a friend to you:

the idea: to be and behave as
I'd wished my professors had been:

more of the idea: hang out with the
full humanity of you: talented,
intelligent, quirky gal

I'm thinking it's working,
yes?

17/365 Christopher

I bring up your name
whenever
Fergus Falls or golf
is mentioned in
conversation: today,
both.

Your accomplishments are
legendary:
"Oh, he's a really *good*
golfer, isn't he," said my colleague.
Um, yes,
yes he is.

Forever the baby brother, despite
turning 40: we're proud
of your accomplishments.

16/365 Susan

Is it because we met through
book club that we keep connecting
over
via
through
our mutual
logophilia and bibliophilia?

No doubt

I've acquired your friendship like the
acquired taste it is: inconsistently consistent
infuriatingly furious
undeniably undeniable
a rich ragout of years and fears
: genial, generous, repairable

15/365 Tom

Again your name doesn't
come up when the
topic turns to taboo.

How can it? I
alone am responsible and
you are now an
old man, eating Chinese
take-out, barely reading The
New York Times online.

What have you made of this, your one wild and waning life?

14/365 Jody

has it been five years?
are they coming to an
end?

questions aren't your favorite thing
i'm both finding out and
being reminded. that's okay i
want to say but can't
seem to
mean

and
can't be
right, really: you seeker of
new ways of seeing: finely-tuned
antenna

13/365 Kim P

Pale red-headed middle hitter

(actually peach-colored, "red" because
no other haircolor color fits)

we've played volleyball since the last millennium
but not lately since you

and Cindi have had the boys and since
I've become "retired."

We'll continue to intersect once in
the while that opens up

between . . .