I finally caved and filled out my Myspace profile (mostly at the urging, or pushing, of Dawn 
). We got addicted one night trying to find old schoolmates from Mars Hill – so much fun to see where people are, who they’re with, if they’ve had babies, etc. I’ve found lots of old sorority sisters and other friends from college – it’s amazing how many people I’ve lost contact with – it’s nice to re-connect, if only on a kinda superficial level for now. If you have a profile and you’re not on my ‘friends’ list, let me know and we can be Myspace buddies!
Do you have any friendships that are so easy to slip back into, like a really comfy pair of PJs? A relationship with someone who knows you so well that even after months away, it’s like you’ve not been apart at all?
One of my best friends from college is here visiting this week and next, and while we’ve both changed a lot over the last 8 years since we first met when I picked her up from the airport before we left for freshman scholarship orientation at Mars Hill, we can still pick up pretty much right where we left off whenever we saw each other last. (In this case, when I was out in WA visiting her last fall.) We’ve gone through many oscillations in our relationship, but we always come back to the point of treasuring our frienship, whatever it’s flaws.
This is not the case with all of my friendships, as is probably the case with some of yours. Some frienships require so much emotional energy that spending time around them leaves me exhausted. While I’m very open to the possibility that friendships can be great grounds for ministry to someone’s very real emotional and physical needs, sometimes too many of those kinds of relationships can completely zap my energy for any kind of relationship. And I do love helping my friends when they’re struggling; it’s only when that energy drainage becomes the predominant theme of the friendship that I begin to struggle.
But that is not the case with my friendship with Dawn – we certainly argued in college (mostly about typical roommate stuff) and we don’t always see eye-to-eye on everything, but our foundation for friendship is pretty solidly based in years of knowledge about each other, years spent talking about anything and everything, the boys we liked, the ones we didn’t, the craziness of a particular professor, etc. Unlike so many other relationships, I feel like I can be completely myself around her, and I hope she feels likewise – we give each other room to be ourselves.
So here’s to friendships, old, new, struggling or thriving – how boring life would be without them!
So my marathon weekend is behind me, and even with as much of an introvert as I am, I was sad it’s over. Much fun was had, hanging out with friends, making new ones, taking horribly goofy pictures which I later regret… you know, the usual weekend with friends
Saturday started with some early time in the lab before heading to Charlotte for a quick shopping trip (I’m all set for the wedding now, Frances!), lunch at a German restaurant with my brother (assorted German sausages as appetizers, hehe), and picking up Adriene at the airport (our first time meeting) to take her back to Kari’s house for girls night in with BBQ and homemade hushpuppies (yay for southern deep-frying 
). We also wore lots of tacky, I mean, fun ‘flair‘ from Jamie’s care packages, drank maragaritas, lit sparklers, and watched the scary down-the-street neighbors fire up professional-level fireworks – good times.
Sunday was early after Saturday’s late night, but Sunday school was awesome (Ben is an amazing teacher – we’re working through Revelation and looking at patterns/symbolism of Christ’s return). Home to finish making my pasta salad and then headed back to Kari’s for Birthday/4th of July cookout – good food, good people (got to meet Scott, as he and Mike were at a baseball game the night before, hence girls night in), lots of laughs, and two very cute twin girls to keep us all entertained! Sunday again ended with fruity drinks (this time pina coladas, maragaritas and strawberry daquiris) and s’mores over Kari and Mike’s new fire pit
Monday was again more work in the morning/early afternoon (darn grad school), before preparing for KELLY CLARKSON – we picked up several people on our way to the concert, stopped at Target (for concert SNACKS) and Chick-fil-a and then finally got to the concert and found a great plot of grass – we had an excellent view and even though the opening band sucked (anyone ever heard of Rooney?), the concert was awesome! (Kari, Adriene, Scott, Dawn and Alisa all have/will soon have pictures of the whole weekend up) Lots of glowstick jewelry (courtesy of Jamie again ), jumping up and down and crazy top-of-our-voices singing/screaming, like the crazed Kelly fans that we all are (well, except Adriene).
It was a late night driving back, and a very early morning the next day to take Adriene back to the airport in Charlotte, but it was a fun time to hang out with just the girls for a while and chat – I did come back home and take a quick nap and finish up some stuff in the lab before heading back to Greensboro for a baseball game (which we lost 
) – and because of the freaky bad weather, they didn’t do the fireworks til late, so we left and I just caught some on the drive back to Winston (well, I think they were fireworks, they could have been lightning, given the storms I was driving through!).
A fabulous weekend, celebrating friends and freedom and fun times (how’s that for alliteration?) – even without big fireworks!
I don’t have time for a real post, but here are some pictures from the shower a couple weeks ago – complete with several of baby Aria
I’m heading home tonight to celebrate Mother’s/Father’s Day this weekend (cause Dad was in Africa for Mother’s Day) – should be a good time with the family, and a nice break after a very long, stressful week at work!
Two girls I know have gotten engaged in the past month – now, at my age, this would not be that unusual, as I seem to have friends getting engaged/married/pregnant on a daily basis, but what IS unusual is that both of these people have known their new fiance for less than 6 months, and they’ve both set the wedding date before the end of the year, meaning that they’ll have known each other for less than a year when they tie the knot! What the?!?!?! I mean, I know that as we get older, the time necessary for deciding who to marry typically goes down, as people generally know more about what they’re looking for, are more secure in who they are, etc… but these girls are mid-20s, and I wouldn’t have thought we were to that age yet. Does this scare anyone else? I can’t really imagine marrying someone I’ve known for a total of less than a year – it seems like you’d still be in the middle of the infatuation stage of a relationship at that point, not allowing the other person to see the real you for the most part (and vice versa). I don’t know… just seems kinda fast to me…
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In other news, I have a place booked for my stay in Bozeman, MT this summer while I attend a ‘summer school’ science conference at Montana State University – it’s called the ‘Lewis and Clark Motel’ and it looks fabulously tacky – check out the website and see the luxury I’ll be reveling in, come July!
