From Zorro to Google

You know how I mentioned that I listen to books on tape while driving to work? Well, on Tuesday I decided that I would listen to Zorro by Isabel Allende. Eli got it at some point from the discount bin at Books-A-Million and I hadn't listened to it yet. So far in the story, Diego (soon to be Zorro) is fifteen, and his father has shipped him from the Spanish colonies in California to Spain to be educated in the traditional Spanish manner (where, if I am to understand it, he takes lessons with the world's greatest fencing master). Anyway, he's not to Spain just yet. The ship had to stop in the Azores to take on fresh water and fresh food. And then my mind wandered...

You know how people will Google their own names from time to time, just to see what shows up? Well, for a few years I've been searching the Internet to try to find my friend Jennifer Paterson (yes, with one "t"). I'm hoping that someday Jennifer will Google herself and find this post and let me know how life has been in the last, oh, 15 years.

As Air Force brats, when we were in 7th and 8th grades, our dads were stationed in Altus, OK. Jennifer and I played basketball together at Altus Junior High (though she was arguably a better player than me). She also swam on the swim team at WOSC with several of the other officer kiddos. Sometime during eighth grade (and this is why my mind wandered) her dad, Bruce, was stationed in the Azores, and they moved away. We kept in touch for a couple of months, sending videos and letters back and forth, and she even once called me from the Azores via a ham operator, but eventually we lost touch. She got busy with life, becoming a cheerleader and excelling at basketball on her little island. I often mention Jennifer in passing (though not by name) to my students because Jennifer was the first person I ever met who had a step-mother. And due to all my reading, I was under the impression that all stepmothers were wicked (thanks a lot, Cinderella). It boggled my mind that Jennifer and her step-mother, Loyce, got along.

Fast forward to the age of the Internet, and I, myself tried to Google Jennifer at some point, and all I was able to find was that she was a Miss Arizona contestant in 2001, Miss La Paz County. There's not trace of her after that.

So, Jennifer, if you ever Google yourself and come across this e-mail, it's me, the girl formerly known as Erin Greenawalt!

And to everyone else, thanks for humoring me while I walk down memory lane.