Girls, Girls, Girls!

One of the highlights of my year is the annual girl's weekend. We were roommates during our senior year at Clemson - Katie didn't actually live with us, but she spent the night at our apartment enough to be an honorary member.

These girls are some of my favorite people in the world. They have known me for 9 years, have been around to witness all of my significant relationships, understand that I have an insatiable need to take pictures and humor me by posing accommodatingly, and we have the ability to pick up right where we left off and it feels like we haven't missed a beat.

Lindsay, Katie and I sang for Clemson in the University Singers and were blessed to have the opportunity to sing at Carnegie Hall. Katie and Shannon's husbands were also a part of that trip. We've had the tradition of singing "How Beautiful" at each others wedding rehearsals, and I'm hoping that even though I'm currently about 6 years behind them, that they will resurrect that tradition when the time comes.

My sweet friends live all over the East coast. Katie is up in NJ, Lindsay is over in Charlotte and Shannon is down in Tampa. It's about to get international though, since Katie has been quickly climbing the rungs of the J&J ladder and is being moved to Belgium for her next assignment. We're thinking that girl's weekend will be going international as well.

We can count on girl's weekend to include a few basic things, no matter where we are, no matter what time of year we get together.

• Rotel cheese dip
• Marissachino's or Amaretto sours
• Sweets galore
• Talking, talking and more talking

And we have yet to repeat a location yet. We have met in Seaside, FL, Edisto Island, SC, Helen, GA, and Lake Toxaway, NC. We have met in spring, fall and winter. Since babies are being introduced to the mix, we are now working around delivery and nursing schedules, but we always manage to make it happen.

I think what I love best is that it's easy. We aren't mega-planners for this weekend. We email to figure out what weekend works best, what location works, what food we want, who's flying/driving, and then we show up. I really value those kind of friendships in this over-planned world.

My favorite part of these weekends? Other than the cheese dip tradition? The laughter. There is always plenty of it. And I laughed so hard this year that I cried. We were cracking each other up so much on the drive up that at one point a call was abruptly ended because it was impossible to talk, or breathe, at that moment.

A few quotes from this past weekend:

• "Where are y'all right now? I think we're at mile marker 3,250."
• "Ummm, I think that's an elevation sign, not the mile marker..."
• "Oh NO! The door locked behind me...and the keys are inside"
  - this was on arrival, at 1 AM, and we were all outside unloading the cars.
• "What happened to the water?!? I have conditioner in my hair!"
  
• "So, was I supposed to get under the sheet for the massage?"
• "Can you throw another log on the fire...and kill a baby seal while you're at it?"
  - this was after I suggested that Greenpeace was corrupt while playing the game Apples to Apples.
  

I can't wait for the next one...love you sweet friends. I love doing life with you and can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for all of us.

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Listening to: Mary Chapin Carpenter - Girls Like Me
via FoxyTunes