college memories part 2

i'm been spending quite a bit of time in my studio lately and it's interesting how it reflects so much of my college experience. i have a ton of photos, show announcements, magazine cut-outs, ticket stubs, and other random bits & pieces that i've kept over the years.

one piece in particular came to mind the other day. it's a written piece by a friend of mine that just recently started blogging. he's a phenomenal writer and you can read his blog here. my junior year of college, he lived across the street from me and we became close friends over that year. he wrote a piece on being a barista and it literally made me laugh out loud. still does to this day. we managed to keep in touch until about two & a half years ago...i was married at the time and i distinctly remember it was right before the shit hit the fan and the rapid descent into darkness started. i flew down to seattle with my mom for a little birthday vacation. it was such a fun trip! he and i met up and spent the day together, catching up and generally just enjoying each other's company as good friends do.

i lost track of him soon after that. fast forward to today....i've gradually fallen out of touch with a number of friends from college (and high school for that matter) and i miss them. these people were my support structure with whom i spent countless hours with laughing, crying, bitching, talking, and drinking colossal amounts of coffee. i suppose we all grow apart and move on at some point.

back from vacation

just got back from a whirlwind vacation to the east coast! what a great time! i met bff's family for the first time and they were amazing. everyone was so welcoming, straight forward, and full of life. normally i get pretty shy and quiet when it comes to crowds of people, but i was completely at ease.

the weather was phenomenal and the temperature hung around the 90's. i got a slight tan and managed to avoid getting sunburned. we hung around the pool about 98% of the time since it was so hot.

so every year around this time, a rib cook off takes place - and this is serious business. secret recipes and ingredients are guarded with fervor and cooking teams break out their creative side with props & t-shirts.


we didn't have a whole lot of time to prepare a theme and had an idea at the last possible second:


overall the trip was a complete success. things went better than i imagined - it was great to be accepted for who i am. i think the only drawback was that the trip was so short.

p.s. the puppy had fun at his best friends' house and got to play to his heart's content. i think he's bored being an only "child" now.