Who Says You Can't Go Home Again

Well, how was everyone's weekend?  To say that mine was fantastic would be a understatement.  I mean it was really that good.  Rarely does a weekend meet with so much perfection but this one just did.  If you remember, this is the weekend that D and I were going to Illinois to attend our dear friends son's wedding.  Just a little background. This couple was in our wedding ... 30 years ago.  They were our "go-to" couple when we were dating.  We loved hanging out with them.  They were already married and responsible homeowners so we found ourselves at their house almost every weekend.  We just love them so much.  Well, 30 years and 450 miles can change a friendship but honest to goodness, it hasn't.  As soon as we sat down with them this weekend, we felt like we had never left.  We got to visit with them at the wedding, went for a late dinner after and then sat with them at our home church this morning.  Now granted, a lot has changed in all these years but a lot has stayed the same.  These folks are just as solid as a rock and good as gold. 

Here is a photo from the wedding.  This is their oldest child between us.

Okay so if that wasn't the best thing ever, on top of that I sat at Panera for 2 1/2 hours talking and laughing with my best friend from high school Saturday morning.   Y'all seriously, what is better than having a history like that with someone and still loving them like crazy.  Why we didn't take a photo I'll never ever know but trust me when I say, we still look the same as we did in high school.  Yea, right.  If only. 

As we were driving up on Friday, we called another one of our long time couple friends just to let them know we were going to be in town.  They immediately said, "meet us for dinner!"  And we did.  Again, we didn't have enough sense to get a picture but it was just the best time of catching up! 

Mother went with us and believe it or not, she has a friend she has known since she was 5 who is still living (Mother says most her "people" have gone on to be with the Lord) and still living in Marion.  She called her and this friend came to the hotel; picked her up in her car (yep - still driving at 89) and they went "visiting" another one of their girlfriends.  Then Saturday night, a cousin of my daddy's came and took Mother to dinner.  When we got in at 10:30, I knocked on her door and they were still sitting up talking.  Mother was just crazy about all the fun she had.  We heard about it all the way home.  And that was worth the trip!

Family Weekend at GSU

I only have just a minute to catch up you up on our weekend. We headed down below the gnat line on Friday afternoon to enjoy Family Weekend with our boy. G is in Statesboro but we waited too late to make our reservations so we were “forced” to stay in Savannah. While it goes without saying that the highlight of our weekend was the time we spent with our son, we so enjoyed being in the beautiful city of Savannah. While I didn’t see Ruby or Paula, don’t think for one minute I felt cheated. This town is so beautiful. Friday night we had dinner with our boy, his girl and her parents in a City Market cafe then took a leisurely stroll along River Street enjoying the brisk cool evening. It was delightful. I couldn’t help but wondering “if these walls and streets could talk” what great stories they would tell. The juxtaposition of the new with the old in this town is just fascinating.

Saturday we spent the day in Statesboro (“the boro” as the locals call it). We hadn’t seen G’s new apartment or met one of his roommates so we were thrilled to be able to do both. Then we did what every parent in this town was doing – took our child shopping. It was chaos. Now I love to shop but great goodness, we could hardly move in TJ Maxx. But we toughed it out and were successful in adding to G’s wardrobe. Then it was . . . drum roll please . . . game time. Let me set the stage: College – Football – Fraternity – Tailgating. You get the idea.

G was great about including us and introducing us to his friends. And hopefully we did nothing to embarrass him. Except maybe when my chicken sandwich flew off my plate and hit one of his buddies in the leg (it was windy, okay). We did go to the game – for about 30 minutes. Then it started to rain so that was that. We took a unanimous vote and decided to go meet some friends at a local restaurant and do what every die-hard fan does when such happens. . . watch it on tv in a warm, dry comfortable place that serves sweet tea, chicken nachos and key lime pie.

It was a great being in the midst of my boy’s home away from home; to see a snippet of what life is like for him there. We had a great time.