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Cliff

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January 8, 2009

CLIFF

Meet Cliff.  Or Colin.  Or Cliff. 

He's Colin to his parents, co-workers, and the rest of the world.  He's Cliff to us.

Cliff is a college friend of our oldest son, Kristoffer.  They graduated from Indiana University together, both with business degrees.  Cliff was an honor student and now has a high-falutin' accounting job with the government.  I really don't know what he does, but he travels a lot and his position is pretty important and impressive.  But that's not why we love Cliff.

First of all, I think I should share with you how he "became" Cliff.  As the story goes, during their freshman year Cliff (whose real name is Colin!) was an acquaintance of a guy on Kristoffer's dorm floor and a bunch of them were watching a basketball game together.  After he left, the guys couldn't remember what his name actually was but thought that it started with "C".  Someone said he thought it was Cliff...and he became Cliff to that small group of guys and, when we met him, to us as well. 

I think Cliff kind of enjoys his alter-ego.  While he was a student at IU, he did some writing for the Indiana Daily Student newspaper.  His by-line was Cliff.  Having an alter-ego sometimes comes in quite handy, I would think.  He could take credit for a great piece, but if the criticisms start rolling in he can claim he never heard of "Cliff."  Maybe we should all have an alter-ego!

Anyway, we always tease Cliff that he is "Colin" to his sophisticated, cultured friends but to his low-life friends he is "Cliff."  Not that we are low-life...it's a joke, okay?!  It's an endearing name, and I don't think he minds it at all.  In fact, he signs his Christmas cards to us "Cliff."

Whenever Kristoffer's home, Cliff comes to visit.  And, in this case, watch a football game.  Cliff is a sports fanatic.  He has an AMAZING knack for remembering every detail of every game he's ever seen.  While he loves IU sports, he follows all the college teams and my boys and husband enjoy his commentary and opinions and incredible sports knowledge.  We love for him to come visit!

But...we're always a little leery when Cliff is coming.  Because sometimes Cliff's visits bring unexpected and undesirable excitement.  It's not his fault (I don't think, anyway!), but Cliff has seemed to be around during some crazy experiences.

In February of 2003, while my daughter Emily's high school basketball team was playing in the regional in northern Indiana, a sudden storm dumped a lot of snow and we barely made it home.  We crept along the major highways, and when we finally had to get off onto the county roads where we live, the drifts were horrible and it was blowing fiercely.  Just a quarter-mile or so from our house, a huge drift higher than our van's hood was across the road.  Kim gunned the van and drove right through the drift, slipping and sliding and unable to see a thing (did I mention that the drift was HIGHER than the hood of our van?!  All we could see out the windows was...well, dark except for the dim lights from our headlights shining through the snow!).  We made it (miraculously!), and even though our hot engine light came on, Kim kept driving.  When we got home, they opened the hood and snow was PACKED into every crevice around the engine and under the van. 

Cliff was with us.  He said it was the coolest thing he'd ever done.  He laughed the whole time.

When Cliff was visiting later that year, on July 4, another incident happened.  It was extremely hot and humid and Kim was mowing out by the beehives.  Bees get feisty when it is that hot, and apparently they didn't like the noise Kim was making.  They ganged up on him and stung him several (about 20 or so!) times on his face, head, and neck.  His legs got rubbery and he managed to get into the house before he collapsed unconscious in my kitchen doorway.  After several scary minutes, we were able to get him conscious, into the shower, and back to normal. 

Cliff was with us.  Again.  And after the crisis was over, he laughed again.

Torrential downpour and lightning storm at Kyler's high school football game, such a violent storm that they sent the teams to the locker rooms and fans scrambling for the safety of their cars.  Cliff was there. 

Tornado outbreaks all over the state the evening before Kristoffer's wedding.  Cliff was in town.

Unusually frigid, windy, awful conditions for the Little 500 bicycle race last April.  Cliff came to watch.

You get the idea.  Maybe it's a weather thing, now that I think about it.

There are times when Cliff's visits are uneventful.  Thank goodness!  But when any of our kids hear that Cliff is coming, they all want to be around because they're afraid they might miss any of the excitement that may happen.

But this visit was calm and unexciting.  Just the way I like them (sorry, Cliff!).

You're WELCOME anytime, Cliff...we love to see you!  (You're one of the most EXCITING people we know!)  Just be sure to give me time to brace myself!

November 19, 2010

CLIFF...AND LISA

No, that's not a photo of Cliff and Lisa.

That's Cliff on the right, with my son Kristoffer.  These two have been good friends since their days at Indiana University.

If you would call Cliff "Colin" you'd also be right. 

Actually, you'd be MORE right because "Colin" is really his name, but we call him Cliff.

It's a long story...and we have a long, fun, crazy history with Cliff....if you're so inclined, you can click here to read all about it.

Anyway, we can always expect some excitement when Cliff comes calling.  So we were glad to have Cliff come visit and liven up the house Sunday afternoon.

As you can see, they were decked out in their Colts gear to watch the game together.

But this visit was extra-special, because we all got to meet Cliff's special friend...

...Lisa!

We'd heard a little about her and Dana had even "stalked" her on Facebook and checked her out. 

All I can say is...WE LOVE THIS GIRL!!!

I'll leave it at that.

So we had a nice visit with the two of them and hopefully will get to see more of them since Kristoffer and Dana have moved back home.

And although this visit of Cliff's was not as eventful as some (as recounted in my already-mentioned previous post), he couldn't leave without at least a little drama.

I'm not saying who's at fault, but let's just say two dozen eggs were dropped on the floor and inadvertently scrambled before they left!

Gotta love Cliff!

(And we hope to see a lot more of Lisa....)