The Best Weekend!

This weekend....
Friday
5:45 pm: Got to Valpo on Friday in time to hang out with Susan for a bit in her dorm. Met her friend, Tabbi (Hi Tabbi) and then went back to the hotel to meet up with Julie!

7:30: Nostalgic dinner with Julie and Susan at the Subway right across from our old (and Susan's current) dorm. Becky and I celebrated completing our first week of classes there about 14 years ago and one month. : )

8:45: Fireworks!!! And a brief tour of the campus for Julie who hadn't been back in about twelve years. Got to see the really cool book storage system in the library that involves big metal boxes and crane-type things to grab them off shelves. Didn't get to see it in action, but Susan works there now, so I've got an in for the next visit!

9:30: Swimming back at the hotel. Staying up, talking, and drinking with Julie (Susan not of age yet!)

Saturday
8:00 a.m.: Shoe emergency! I packed a black outfit for my signing and forgot the black shirt. Nothing else would go with the pants and the shoes and I had no other shoes except for tennis shoes. So, Julie and I left at 9:15 and stopped by Kohl's for a quick shoe shopping excursion. I got very adorable Skechers slip-ons, but they did cause blisters later in the day.

9:45: Setting up at the bookstore for the signing. Julie helped me get all the books counted and she was as patient as a saint, keeping me company during the whole event. Becky and Clint came by and stayed for quite awhile as did Susan. Heidi, who I haven't seen in a few years, found us as well! It was very cool to see so many people from our class. Everyone is still recognizable as themselves, but we all look soooo much older and more mature. Funny I still feel the same on the inside!

One of my professors stopped by to say hello, too, which was really nice. I wish we would have had a chance to chat more, but things were quite busy. I sold 14 books in just over two hours--pretty darn good!

1:00 p.m.: Lunch at Panera, by Susan's request, with almost everyone. Greg was off with his fraternity brothers preparing for their annual alumni vs. active touch-football game.

2:30: Met up with Greg and Ed, Deb and the kids and Heather and Rob at the football field. Game was already over! Alumni won. : ) Hung out with Becky, Clint, and Julie at the union until it was time for our 10 year reunion event.

3:30: Buffalo Wild Wings for free food, cash bar and a class picture! We met up with everyone there, including Ryan and his wife. Julie, Becky and I were all friends with Ryan our freshman year and we hadn't talked with him in years! It was so much fun hanging out and chatting with him and his wife, Kathy.

6:00: Picked up Susan, Tabbi, Maggie and Tim(my) at the dorms and took them to dinner with all of us at Chili's. Um, yeah, party of twelve on homecoming weekend? Ha! It took them a bit, but we got in! I had possibly one too many Cosmos and handed over the car keys to Susan. : ) After dinner, we made a quick trip to Target so the kids could get whatever was too heavy or cumbersome for them to buy and carry back while walking. Target is pretty far for them to walk very easily.

10:00: Back at my old dorm and Susan's current one, we headed to the cafeteria, the only room with air conditioning, for my cake! The VU Guild makes cakes for parents to send to students and my mom paid for an extra one to be sent to my sister's room for my birthday! Chocolate with chocolate icing--so good.

10:45: Down for a quick trip to Greg's fraternity house to see the place for old times' sake. Then, Julie and I, never the big partiers of the bunch, headed back to hang out with Susan and Tim(my) in Susan's dorm before going back to our hotel for some girl talk and more wine coolers. : )

3:00 a.m.: To bed, finally!!!

Sunday
9:30 a.m.: Dragged self out of bed. Cried that it was my last day with my friends at Valpo, even though it was my birthday. : (

10:45: Got packed up and checked out of the hotel. Said bye to Greg, who drove separately. Went with Julie to Target to get bandaids caused by my new shoes (see above) and we hung out and talked at the Barnes and Noble with our coffee/hot chocolate. None of these stores even existed when we went to school there!

12:00 pm: Stopped by Susan's dorm to say goodbye. : ( It was so much fun spending time with her. The cool part is that because of the age gap between us, she knows many of my friends already and has hung out with them over the years repeatedly. She's included as one no different than us, despite the years between us, and I loved having her with us this weekend. She's my sister and my friend, and I count myself incredibly lucky in that! : )

1:00: To Chesterton for Becky's baby shower at the cutest little restaurant with the most awesome french fries I've ever had! I've eaten more calories this weekend than probably in the entire week. Heather, Julie and I entertained ourselves, chatting and being silly while we watched Becky open her gifts. I'm so excited for Becky and Clint about BG (their nickname for the baby to be born in Jan/Feb of 2008) and it was really neat to see all the lovely things they received to welcome their baby.

3:30: This was the hard part. I was tearing up before I left the restaurant, leaving Beck and Clint behind. Then Julie and I left separately in the parking lot...by the time I reached the first ticket booth on the toll road, I was a big sloppy, red-eyed, crying mess. I miss my friends, but more I just miss that life with them. Being together with them just makes me feel more...whole somehow. Like I'm a small part of this big, warm comfortable group, and I miss feeling that connected.

We've all grown up now and moved on, but it doesn't feel all that long ago that we were making group excursions to Burger King to eat together or braving the trip across the highway to get to Walmart for supplies for our rooms or a party. And I just miss all of it...even the crappy tiny little dorm rooms. Okay, well, maybe not that part! : )

Pictures to follow...