Margaret Farquhar

Just watched an episode of "Wonder Years" called "Square Dance." It's the episode where Kevin has to square dance for P.E. with this girl Margaret. I remember those days. I was talking to a friend who says she never did things like square dancing in school. I told her she missed out. But, in her defense she came to the U.S. from another country. But still, I'm so glad I got to play soccer, baseball, kickball, volleyball, football, capture the flag . . . the list goes on! Square dancing was one of my favorites. The episode captured that awkwardness of having to hold someone else's hand (in my case a guy's hand). I was reminded that my partner was this guy, Alejandro. He died later that year. I wasn't good friends with him or anything like that, but it did bring me down a little since he was partner for a week of square dancing.

Thinking of people passing away often triggers all these other memories I have. I had a friend, Christy (it's been so long that I don't even know if that's how you spell her name). She was the one friend I had that didn't really give a crap about what others' said. She committed suicide supposedly by crashing her car. For Valentine's Day she gave me a card that said something like "I Pink You're Lovely." There a was a pink flamingo by Lisa Frank on the front. On the back of the card she wrote, "Black! Damn it . . . Black!!!" I think of her all the time.

I also think of my high school Spanish teacher who also killed himself. He jumped off a cliff (I think at Yosemite). He seemed normal. He seemed happy. I was confused. He had a daughter.

WAY TO BRING THIS DOWN, JANET! LOL!

Anyway, back to Margaret Farquhar--I would have totally been her friend. She had a bat named Mortimer and a tarantula named Isabel and a lizard . . . oh my gosh--so cool. Except I probably would have never met her because my family moved around so much, and, apparently, so did Margaret.

Anyway, that's that. The episode more or less was about whatever happened to the people you knew in high school. In this case the "weirdo" who had a pet bat who became a professor in biology, mother of six children, and friend to bats.

Speaking of bats, Halloween is just around the corner!