.caitlin.

sweet friend from high school out in portland for a business trip,

came and spent a night and a morning with me.

such a blessing.

Nine years...

And the scene hasn't changed.

Spontaneity Part Two.

Literally as I was buying the tickets for Bolivia, my phone rang. It was my beautiful BFF from high school, Claire.

"Um... what are you doing this weekend?"

Claire lives in Ohio, about six hours away from Wheaton.

We needed to see each other but neither of us had time to do a 12 hour round trip. Hmm...

Some quick googling produced a town roughly halfway between us and a campsite. What more could we ask for?!

I needed to wait to teach the kids, but by 7 pm I'd thrown yoga pants, a toothbrush, and Michael and Lisa's tent (thanks guys! <3) in the car and was good to go.

We found each other around midnight (with soomeee small troubles but God bless kind people at gas stations...), considered setting the tent up in the dark, decided to just make a nest in the car, stayed up late talking, sort of slept...

In the morning, we drove into town and had a long, good breakfast at a cute café.

 

We explored the campgrounds and town, delighted to find out that the area we had happened upon was completely lovely.

We also swam in a lake, but I didn't take pics :-(.

And then we left and drove away in our separate directions. We had spent a total of about 15 hours together. It was so worth it. I love that girl.

(We missed Christina!)

Soooo, on Friday I thought I'd be in America all summer and Wheaton all weekend. By Saturday morning neither was true. For someone who above almost all loves to be in her normal, simple, daily non-grind... I will say that spontaneity can seriously rock.

The Ten Commandments of Spring, as told by Christina and Emily at 16

My sweet BFF Claire just sent me a copy of a list Christina and I apparently drafted in 11th grade. I had totally forgotten about it but am thrilled to say that though I may be five years older, I can't say my priorities have changed that much...

"Monday, May 23, 2005:

The Many Commandments of Spring:

Thou shalt run around outside at least once a day.

Thou shalt eat 15% of thy body weight in chocolate at least once a week.

Thou shalt always be thinking of fun things to do with thy friends outside, even if thou don't have enough time to do them.

Thou shalt not work on homework for more than 23.7 consecutive hours per day.

Thou shalt move the decimal place above one space to the left and THEN follow it.

Thou shalt jump on a trampoline every hour on the hour. If no trampoline is available, pretend.

Thou shalt drive with all the windows open.

Thou shalt picnic all the time.

Thou shalt streak after ensuring that all motion sensor light switches have been firmly placed in the off position.

Thou shalt add more comm(andments + ents) [<-- distributive property of equality] to this post..."

(And so thus were added:)

"Thou shalt stuff thy face with as many popsicles as possible. popsicles as possible. popsicles as possible. hahaha." -Claire

"Thou shalt eat strawberry ice cream and do a jig in the rain." -Cait

"Thou shalt do your running around every day with no shoes on! Also the jig shalt not be with shoes! In fact, the less shoes the better, I say." -Danya

"Thou shalt make at least one batch of brownie batter and eat the whole thing raw with a group of loved ones." -Kelly

Pretty much the perfect thing to read and remember on this first REALLY Spring day here in Chicago (mid-70s!!!). I am proud to announce that even before reading this list I had completed six of the commandments today (if doing less than 27.5 hours of homework AND less than 2.75 hours of homework counts as two separate commandments :-)).

I really, really, really love my high school friends...
some of our spring fun over the years:








Now go run around outside barefoot and eat some chocolate!! Happy Spring!!

Emily is...

I'm off facebook again (always such a freeing feeling)... but I have a strong desire to Update My Status.

I love, love, love my Wheaton life. Including the schoolwork aspects, seriously, and living with lots of people and being busy.

But right now... my status update of life...

is SO, "Emily is SO READY to be on break and SO EXCITED for time to chill, read, be with Jesus, be with friends, and be away."

Yayuh. 24.5 hours til departure.

(yes, I am procrastinating on studying a little bit.)

(side note, my friend Anna from home is visiting today on her way to a conference in Chicago! We're having a blast, it's great to see her.)

Hair Scarves and Friends

While doing some last-minute Christmas shopping today, I bought myself a cute hair scarf. I went back and forth on it for quite awhile, because how tacky is it to buy something for yourself during Christmas season, until finally my friend I was with pointed out that I'd gone back to look at it three times and I better just get it. Still, I made sure to keep the receipt, telling myself that I was just getting it IN CASE I decided I wanted it, and I would really probably return it.

So anyway, after Target I went over Anna's, where Christina, Claire, Kate, and Danya were gathered to share a Hanukkah celebration. Over latkes and dreidel-shaped cookies (I'm serious. Did I mention Anna's super adorable?), I confessed my hair-scarf purchase to them and asked them if that makes me count as the Grinch.

Here were their responses:

"Well, I'm sure it will look really beautiful on you. So REALLY, it's like you're giving US a gift, because WE get to look at you!"

"Yeah, and also you just made a contribution to the group wardrobe. Thanks!" (We share clothes to the point of ridiculousness. As in, "Hm, I don't have anything to wear to this dinner on Saturday." "Oh, what about Kelly's green dress? And you could borrow Claire's dangly earrings! Perfect!")

"Also, if you look really cute, your social status will go up, and therefore OURS will too because we're friends with you. It'll increase our networking abilities!"

"OH! Just like in Pride and Prejudice! And that could also help us find a husband!" (I'm serious.)

So. My purchase of a hair scarf for myself two days before Christmas, is, in fact, not really selfish because what I actually did was guarantee my friends:

• A prettier picture upon which to gaze
• An addition to their borrowing possiblities
• Higher social and networking status' and...
• Marital prospects.

Which was totally what I was thinking when I bought it. How Spirit-of-the-Season-y of me.

Basically... my friends are really cute.