'The Good You Do Will Come Back to You'
Say hello to new blogger Chrissy Fessler. Chrissy and I go back to junior high school days. Though I think we didn't like each other in junior high, but hit it off in high school. I always thought she was the bad influence on me, but as I learned when I attended her college graduation last summer - I might have been the wilder up-to-no-good one.

Chrissy got pregnant shortly after high school and later got married to her man. The happy bride and groom were actually fighting, I mean really fighting, by the time they cut the wedding cake. After the reception, they left their honeymoon suite to come to the bar (the Alley Cat, of course) where the remnants of the wedding guests had convened. They got in another fight there. The marriage didn't last long, but they did produce a fabulous daughter, Morgan, who is now in high school and sees a lot of both her parents. (Morgan, by the way, is a good kid, absurdly smart and she recently said I'm a "pimp," which she said is the top spot of the pecking order in high school lingo these days.)

What will you find on Chrissy's blog? Learn how we played "Hey Mister" in high school and exactly which establishments would sell booze to minors 20 years ago. (Did I just say 20 years ago??) Read about the haunted mental institution near her Oregon home -- used for "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" -- that will shortly be turned into new urban village. And then there's her own gentle telling of her life since high school: "Got knocked up December 1987. ... Dead end jobs until 1996 include: Olive Garden, Shaver Pizza N' Ribs and an East Bakersfield convenience store. ... February 2004: University final bill comes due: $47,000. Pay up NOW they say. ... I haven't had health insurance since 1991. And it wasn't because I didn't want it. ... I've worked with pneumonia, a bowel obstruction, and a broken ankle. I didn't have a choice." Chrissy, by the way, was just hired full time, will full benefits in the field of her choosing. Many congratulations!
- posted by Amy @ 3/13/2004 09:35:00 AM