Thelma and Louise or Lorna and Shirley

A hundred years ago when I started in radio and snagged my first full-time job in Red Deer, Alberta, a wonderful, quirky, hilarious newscaster took me in as her roommate.  This weekend that woman and I are finishing up her visit from Winnipeg and I’m grateful that she’s still in my life and as hilarious as ever. 

Dr. Shannon Sampert got out of broadcasting and earned her PhD in Political Science.  She’s an associate professor at the University of Winnipeg and travels all over the world to deliver her research. But don’t be fooled by the fact that she’s brilliant.  She’s still the nutbar I made macaroni-and-cheese with in our Red Deer apartment. Her most recent travels took her to a place where few humans I’ve known have dared to tread. I was filled with envy.

close-up of a red sweatshirt that reds "the world's biggest twine ball in Darwin Minnesota" and has a drawing of a giant ball of twine

Apparently the giant ball of twine began when the hoarder who created it didn’t want to toss out a few bits of twine and, well, the rest eventually became history along with a fight over which nearby town would host the ball and museum. I’m not kidding.

Among other places, I did take my well-traveled pal to Goderich to check up on the recovery effort and it’s going well. The town looks amazing. And we spent the bulk of the day in the square.

me smiling with Shannon leaning her head on my shoulder from behind so all you can see is her neck. She is shorter than me and has short cropped grey hair.

Shannon has visited me over the years and we had a legendary few days in Montreal several years ago when we did our best to prop up the local economy with our shopping prowess.

I don’t have a ton of old friends. I moved away from where I grew up and while there are plenty of people I keep in loose touch with from high school, college and early-work-years they’re not the “come and stay for a few days” kind of friends that Shannon is. Well, one is.  But I do know that when Shannon is around there’s no stress about what we’ll do. We say we’re going to be like Thelma and Louise but we dubbed each other Lorna and Shirley back in the day. Her friends in the ‘Peg probably wonder why there is one woman on Facebook who refers to her as Shirley for a reason that’s never explained!