In the cobwebs of my mind

I want to note a few memories I have of Sherrie down here for myself. Since she died I've had moments when something will flash about Sherrie and I'm afraid I'll lose them forever if I don't write them down now.
When we were living together, Sher & I had a mutual friend Kathy. Kathy bar tended with Sher and that's how I came to meet Kathy. At the time I was a waitress and attending beauty school. Kathy had at one time been a hairdresser so that was our common ground. The three of us had a blast when together. About 3 months after I moved up here with Hubster, Sher called me with the sad news that Kathy had committed suicide. A few days later I drove down to Sher's house so we could attend the funeral together. As we were getting ready to leave the house I asked Sher if she had Kleenex. Sher was out of Kleenex so we each grabbed a wad of toilet paper in preparation for the tears to come. The service was beautiful and of course found us dabbing at the tears rolling down our faces. Sher and I had sat fairly close to the front of the church so as the service ended we followed the family out of the church. As we were walking down the aisle I noticed quite a few people give Sher and I questioning looks. I assumed they were trying to figure out if we were family of Kathy's or who we were. When we reached the truck in the parking lot Sher opened the door and turned towards me to let me in the truck first. When she turned we both gazed upon each other and burst out laughing. Sher and I each had pieces of toilet paper stuck all over our faces. We had it in our eyebrows, eyelashes, cheeks, chins, noses everywhere we had dabbed our tears. We looked like we had a shaving mishap. Now it dawned on us why we were getting these strange looks from the other people as we exited the church. I tell you it was one of the best laughter through tears moments I've ever had and I know Kathy enjoyed watching us two idiots from above.

Last week I was coming home from work and was thinking of Sher as I was driving. I was recalling a time when she and I were driving around town we were listening to tapes I had in the car. I put in Night R@nger and the song Sister Christian came on. Sher was always kind of a cool cucumber and didn't get too excited or act goofy. As soon as that song started she cranked it up and started singing along. I joined in and soon we were both belting out the song as we were sitting at stop lights with not a care to who saw us.
As I continued driving home I sang the words of the song I could remember and pulled into the driveway with a smile on my face. Later that night I was watching American Id0l and afterwards a show came on that contestants could win money for completing lyrics in a song. Lo and behold if one of the songs she chose wasn't Sister Christian. I felt as if it was a reach out moment from Sher.

Another thing that I am so glad Sher and I did was that we got tattoos together. We decided to get them somewhat spur of the moment. The day we found a tattoo shop we stopped off at a bar first for some liquid energy. It was about 11:00 in the morning when we went to the shop and the owners wife greeted us at the door. We told her we wanted to get tattoos and she gave us some books to look at designs while she went to wake the owner up. Yes almost noon and the owner wasn't awake, should have been our first clue. Anyways this long haired biker dude comes out of the back and introduces himself as Scootin Newton. Since I was in beauty school I knew the importance of sterilization so I questioned Scootin about his tools. After showing us that his equipment was indeed sterile we picked our designs. Sher went first and got a blue rose bud that looked as if it came up out of her cleavage. As she was getting hers done this loud chopper pulled up in front of the shop. This guy walks in and oh my oh my...he looked exactly like Bruce Springstein. This was the 80's so yes he did look mighty fine. Brucey boy sat down beside me and asked me what I was going to get. I had hand drawn this beautiful rose while I had been waiting so I showed him my rose. He said "you know what I always find sexy is chicks with cross and skull tattoos" and he looked into my eyes with his sexy eyes and he smiled. Yikes! He had absolutely no teeth, not even a nubbin. What a downer, I couldn't quite picture myself on the back of his chopper riding off into the sunset anymore. So it comes my turn and I give Scootin my drawing with no skulls or crosses and he begins. I chose to get my tattoo down by my bikini line, so I was fairly exposed. Thank goodness for liquid courage. Shortly after Scootin begins we hear another bike pull up and this guy with long blond hair comes in and proceeds to hold a conversation with Scootin. So the three of these biker dudes are standing on each side of me as I'm laying there semi exposed discussing plans for the night. Well it didn't take a rocket scientist to realize they were more or less planning a drug sale to take place in an alley downtown. I'm lying there trying to act all cool and Sher is sitting off to the side snickering. Little shit. My tattoo is finally finished and I pull up my pants and we got the heck out of there pronto. A few weeks later Sher and I are eating dinner and watching the local news when this blond guys mug shot comes on the screen. He had been convicted of killing 2 girls and dumping there bodies out of town. Then to top it off they show Scootin's shop and report how this was their main hang out and the murders were related to a drug deal gone bad and they found pounds of marijuana in the walls of Scootin's shop. Needless to say Sher and I didn't feel too smart about our choice of tattoo artist and felt damn lucky. But we got tattoos and a story that will last forever. I'm glad we chose to do that because I have a lasting memory of Sher on my body. Even though now after two kids I have to lift my tummy flab in order to see the tattoo. I remember laughing with Sher about our tattoos when we last talked and telling her how I had to shift the flab to see my tattoo and she commented her rose bud was getting closer to her belly button every year.
I've got good memories of Sher and for that I'm thankful.