I am busying myself getting ready for a houseguest. My friend Angie is coming! Yay! I haven't seen her since last Nov. at Andra's wedding. This will be her first time at this house.
We met during orientation freshman year. You know where they make you play silly games with total strangers? We've been friends ever since. She and I both left that first school after the year was over. I returned home to "regroup" (ie. stop wasting my parent's money). She went back to Shreveport, Louisiana and transferred to school there. I visited and applied the next year. So we were back together again at another small Southern liberal arts school.
After she graduated she came home to DC with me and stayed with my family. Then she settled into graduate school in DC and I went back for my senior year. I returned home after and we began our pattern. She lived in town and knew all the great restaurants and clubs. I lived in the suburbs and visited each weekend. The perfect arrangement. Then I had to screw it up by falling in love and wanting to move North. So I did. She continued to be brilliant, charismatic and successful in DC. Even so I coaxed her up here to be my maid-of honor when I got married five years ago. Each year I go down and do a whirlwind tour to see family and my friends. We get to reconnect and I get a shot of city life again. Angie comes here to get her shot of mountains and Yankee lifestyle. It works. I have lots of fun (hopefully) plans for the weekend. Did I mention she is a gourmet cook, one of the smartest people I know, witty and fun? Okay, okay I'll stop.