Hello everyone,

A couple of weeks ago I had two old co-workers contact me via email.  One was looking for help filling a spot at his company and asked if I knew anyone that might fit the bill.  The other just emailed to say hello.  I then realized that it had been a while since I had contacted several of my old co-worker friends.  I sent out ten emails to touch base.  Most of them emailed me back to catch up.  One really stuck out.

You see, she emailed me back to say she had sent me a FB message a few hours before, and I obviously hadn’t read it yet.  I thought it was odd that she knew I hadn’t read it.  As it turns out, the email was about a good friend of ours that no longer works there and was recently hospitalized with inoperable cancer.  She went by to see him, and he asked about me and several other people he had lost contact with throughout the years.  I called the friend that sent the email and talked to her for a while to find out the details.  I then called the daughter of the friend in the hospital and asked how he was doing.  She said that he was doing well and handed the phone to her father.

It was amazing how upbeat he was during the conversation.  We talked for almost a half hour, and I can’t remember the last time I’ve laughed so hard.  He’s a great guy, and I’m going to call him again tonight to see how he’s doing.

The name of this Tuesday post each week is Sweet Tea Tuesday, so I have to tell a story about my friend.  He’s a good ole boy, and loves sweet tea.

I needed someone to go with me to see my customer, who is located about 90 minutes north of Toronto.  I asked if he would come, and he said he’d love to.  We flew to Toronto and drove up that evening.  We stopped at a little restaurant on the way, and when the server asked about drinks, he said that he would have sweet tea.  Well, I started laughing because I knew they wouldn’t have any.

Then she said, “Would you like lemon with your sweet tea?” 

I was floored.  He told her that he would like lemon, and asked why I had laughed.  I said that I’d never been to a Canadian restaurant that served sweet tea.  The server then returned with a glass of ice and a can of Lipton sweet tea with lemon.  Okay, TECHNICALLY this is sweet tea, but let’s just say it wasn’t what he expected. 

He looked at the can of tea, looked at me, and then smiled at the server and said, “Uh ma’am, I think I’ll just have a cup of coffee.” 

I almost fell out of my chair I was laughing so hard. 

When I talked with him last week, I told him that I loved that night, and when I recounted the story we laughed about it all over again.

So how about you?  Have you recently talked with any old friends that you’ve been out of touch with for a while?  If not, I challenge you to look in your Outlook, old address book or Rolodex, or dig out your high school annual and pick a few people to get back in touch with.  Let us know how it goes. 

Here’s a nice tall glass of iced sweet tea to quench your thirst while you do it.  ~clink~

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