Last night my sister and I along with a few of our Jonesboro friends traveled the 2 hours south to Little Rock to see our friend from back home Corby Schaub. We had a great visit as always, though it started out kinda slow... we were all tired, as Corby was on the tail end of a long rock and roll tour, and I am a Mom therefore I am tired. Despite slow beginnings, it ended with a bang as Corby and crew gave the performance of their lives. It makes me so proud that each time I see them play they are better than the last.
The show was like a build up to my upcoming trip home to Texas- seeing Corby was almost like the movie Independence Day where the long ago crashed alien ship starts to tingle and move when the new ones start to come in. Corby and I both felt it- he said he was going to have the best show of the tour, and I was even more excited about my trip home than I already was (if that is possible) just being around him.
This experience is a rare one, and one that I share with very few people in my life. Corby is one of those people and always has been. I must interject that I am blessed to have a wonderful family, the best husband, and great kids who know me inside and out. They love me unconditionally for who I am everyday despite any and all glaring shortcomings and flaws. I cherish these people God put in my life everyday and make a concerted effort to be "put together" for them from dawn til dusk. Truth be told at times it is exhausting to try so hard every day to be what others need of me. That's why nothing can substitute for friends from home.
Friends from home can be proud of and appreciate who I have evolved into while still loving and remembering the person I used to be. Only friends from home ask you questions like "Are you OK with your career? I swear to everyone that you should have been a musician. Hell it's not too late." Friends from home can say things about ex boyfriends that simultaneously floor me and crack me up. "I never knew Will well," Corby said, "But he seemed like the life of the party." He hit it right on the head. "You can imagine how happy my Dad was about that," I said. Corby just cracked up, agreed, and went on to say that he thought Will was a perfectly logical dating choice (I know, right?).
We spoke about the Band Turkey Dinner. We laughed about bundt cakes and our strong aversions to them since the Fredericksburg right of passage which is the Cake Walk. We remembered heart breaks, life changing events, and the resulting repercussions. We talked about the worst losses in our lives and our biggest hopes and dreams. We reminisced about the Peach Jamboree, road tripping to the soundtrack of George Strait, and how to this day any random 80s Strait song on the radio can make me and this certified Rock Star both long for the hills of home.
Corby knows who I used to be and who I still am somewhere deep inside. Corby knows about my indiscretions, bad decisions, who I may-or-may-not have given Mono to in high school. He worries about me, and looks through my put together facade to see the real me. It is unnerving and yet somehow so very comfortable to shrug off everything and just be, if only for a few hours in a super loud club on President Clinton Avenue with Corby, my sister, and 600 of our new found best friends. I am so thankful for him in my life, and for all the other "Corbys" I have, Emil, Shawn, Angie, and Ava.
Ava, remember the time we were running out in your pasture and my brand new shoe got sucked off in the mud? I thought I was dead for sure. Angie- remember showing sheep? I know you do, but I just wanted you to know I think about that every once and a while and smile fondly. Emil- thank you so much for being my computer math partner. And I also remember dancing with you our senior year to Journey's "Faithfully" while all the freshmen girls watched and swooned. Shawn- being a manager with you in 8th grade was possibly some of the funniest times in my life! That and fake slapping Leslie Lees in front of a packed house in the San Angelo dorms. I love you guys, and though you may not be in Fredericksburg when I get there, I'll be thinking of you.
