LIBA TAKES THE LEAP

When I was in third grade, I was great friends with a little girl named Elizabeth, though everyone called her Liba. She lived one street over and several blocks down from us at first, but then I found out we were moving -- into the house directly across from hers! When I spotted her by the lockers the next morning, and ran across to tell her the news, she threw her arms around me and we both jumped up and down, squealing. Good thing the hall monitors didn't catch us! We stayed good friends throughout elementary school but, as so often happens, began drifting apart in our teens, when we ended up hanging with different crowds.

Liba and I, heading off to Europe with our Girl Schout troop. I'm the geek wearing the corsage, giddy with excitement over my very first plane flight! That's Liba in the center above me, looking "too-cool-for-school."

Once we headed off to different colleges, we kept tabs on one another for a while through our moms, but lost touch altogether when her folks moved out of our old neighborhood. I think the last time I really talked to her was at our ten-year reunion, which was a looooong time ago. We had our fortieth this fall, and though I didn't attend, I did join the facebook group they set up for it, and reconnected with several people there, one of whom was Liba.

I'm not sure if that facebook connection led her to this blog or not, or if my effusive ramblings about my wonderful little town had any effect on her whatsoever. All I know for sure is that, shortly thereafter, I got a message from her saying, "Guess what? We're fixing to be neighbors again!" Apparently she started browsing around the real estate listings for Wimberley, because "it just sounded like a nice place to live", found one that looked promising, arranged to meet up with a realtor one weekend, and next thing you know, it's a done deal! What's even more amazing is that, if I understood her right, unlike my hubby and me, who took about 30 years of constant visiting to even make up our minds which Hill Country town was our favorite, not to mention which house, that house-hunting trip of hers was her very first time in Wimbereley. Lord-a-mercy. I sure hope it lives up to her expectations!