Jenny-Jeremy

Jenny Cape

God, bless Jenny Cape. And God bless anyone else who runs a children's ministry. (And God bless my drawing abilities while we're at it, because man am I rusty!) It seems to be a thankless and overwhelming task and this woman does it with a huge smile on her face; wrangling, engaging and entertaining not only a congregation full of kids, but also the volunteers who teach them. And, you know, I think she loves it...clearly she's crazy. 

Jenny has a pretty big fan club, and even though we don't know each other that well, I can see why. She's tough, funny, smart, sweet, calming and under that big smile she's always got on, I detect a note of subtle comical cynicism which seems to be a hidden treasure here in the south.

Jenny Reinsch Hoshaw

Here comes the tears again! Every thursday night, somewhere in St. Charles, Missouri, a group of incredible women are meeting. A group that I can only classify as a miracle. TGIT! This group started November 17th, 2004(?) with 6 new Christian gals who just wanted to know stuff. Almost a decade later, this group has grown to a number I can only guess is around 30. But this isn't about that group...it's about Jenny! 

I felt close to Jenny right away. She makes my heart happy. She's such a genuine, authentic and compassionate person with leadership abilities that I think she's only half aware of. You can tell Jenny anything with no judgement bounced back at you what-so-ever. Only genuine interest and caring. 

AND... if terrorists ever force me to be captain of a softball team and hand pick my players in a game that determines the fate of a building full of people, Jenny would be my first pick!

Jerad Wright

I moved to O'fallon, Missouri the summer before seventh grade (such a perfectly awkward age to start over.) So did Jerad. I suppose we could smell each others fear because we found each other pretty quickly that first day and were immediate allies. Jared was friendly, funny, outgoing, cute and had super cool hair so people were drawn to him and I happily leeched on and covertly gathered his admirers and wrangled my own group of pals...cause that's how I do. We stayed good buddies for our remaining Fort Zumwalt years and since I could never get a date to any dances senior year, he swooped in and rescued me two more times. It frightens me to think what would have happened had I leeched on to someone else that fateful day in 1992.

Jeremy Stull
Uhhh....what the what? Okay, so I admittedly have not been up to date on Jeremy's life the past many years, but I just checked out his page for a quick look see and apparently I have missed out on A LOT.

Jeremy was a college comrade. Back then I would describe him as a sweet, funny, mellow but secretly anxious and classically unkempt dude who you'd expect to find in the creative scene. Not lazy by any means, but not really motivated either. You know, like me. Just waiting to find "their thing".
Well...I guess he freaking found it. He now lives in Manchester, UK, with his wife (love it!) and owns his own BEAUTIFUL beer store and host events that merge beer drinking with great movies like Wet, Hot American Summer! Whhhhaaat!? Look at this place: Beermoth

A lot of my friends from college have really been getting their shit together and doing such amazing and ambitious things. Hopefully I'm next!

Jeremy Townsend - JERT
JERT is a fellow St. Louis to Atlanta transplant artist and one of my favorite kind of contradictions. Sweet and Salty. Like kettle-corn! While I've only been in his presence a few brief times I feel confident to say this: His art is funny, vulgar, cynical and has it's middle finger up at high art a-holes and he is absolutely one of the nicest people I've ever met.

I introduced myself to him via the internet before I moved down here and he was SO kind. He and his gorgeous wife, who live less than a mile from my job, invited me over many times to make friends. But, since I was in a bad mood for most of my first year here and caught a bad case of the anti-socials, I really didn't take advantage of their kindness. Shame on me.

Google JERT or go here: http://mrjert.blogspot.com/
Trust me. He's a big deal.

Facebook Friends: Jennifers

Jennifer Gronemyer

I really haven't seen Jennifer Gronemyer since high school, but back then she was SO COOL. And I don't mean that in a flippant way. She was one of those beautiful girls that could beat the shit out of someone with her eyes. She seemed so confident and self possessed and tough, so of course I was afraid of her because I was sure that someone like that would see right through me and eat me for breakfast. But, when I did get to know her sometime freshman year, shame on me,...SHE WAS SO FREAKING NICE– not to mention hilarious! Lesson learned: Don't be afraid of cool people folks. They aren't scary. Just misunderstood.

Jennifer Hunn Pagano

According to facebook, Jenny Hunn is either an immortal vampire or a part-time Indiana Joneser who discovered the fountain of youth somewhere in the wildnerness of middle Missouri. She looks exactly the same. EXACTLY. She's beautiful. The kind of beautiful that is so flawless and symetrical that she looks like she was created in Adobe Illustrator by a femme-bot developing, basement-dwelling super genius. While I'm sure that she could have had a brilliant career as a super-model, she chose instead to step behind the camera and is totally thriving with her own photography business. Check her out: JHP Photography Studio

Jennifer McMenamy Fries

JMac is just good people. through and through. She's always smiling that big beautiful effervescent smile and she's a genuine pleasure to be around. Plus, lame or not, I can always count on her to laugh at my jokes. Clearly she hates awkward silences as much as I do. She also has some weird power that I can't quite define. She once tricked me into feeling confident about wearing a bikini in public! Her clever spell only lasted a day though. 

Jennifer Myers Rechtin

Let it be known that one of the major reasons this blog has been at a standstill is because of this woman right here. As I've mentioned before, some people mean so much to me that words fail me and I get phonetically constipated. 

There's so many relationships I deeply miss from St. Louis, but there are a handful that make my chest tighten and my eyeballs drippy the minute I think about them. My friendship with JM is one of them. She started out as one of the best friends of one of my best friends, but somewhere over the years we adopted each other and now she just feels like family to me. I think that's the best word I can use. Family. People like me need people like her. She's very nurturing, dependable, kind, hardworking and devoted and will help your ass out wether you like it or not. You know, all the stuff I can't even try to fake. 

Jenny Cowart

Jenny Cowart makes me smile. She IS a smile. Thinking of her takes me back to one of my favorite seasons in the emmy-ignored series that is my life. Spending hours every week with a mad assortment of the funniest people I know at our base of operations: The Maxi-Pad. Life was pretty awesome, made so in part by Jenny and our awesome gang of misbehavin' misfits.