Surprise Visit

It was a full weekend including garage-sale-ing (11 items all for $13), a
showing of African Cats (much more intense and emotional than I had
anticipated, even for an animal movie), dinner at the B Spot with K (the
rosemary fries are to die for), a trip to Anthropologie (a reward for
being so thrifty at the garage sales), soaking up a little of the gorgeous
weather (a true rarity in the Cleve), and planning and then teaching my
first RS 4th sunday lesson (my new calling).

But the most noteworthy occurrence was a surprise appearance by my former college roommate, N. I've probably mentioned N before, but for those
needing a reminder, she's the one who's always doing something adventurous like repelling off a cliff or biking up a mountain, something
international like living in France for 4 months or hiking whatever that
monster hike in the German-speaking countries is, or something crazy like
driving across the country on minimal sleep. I go back and forth on
whether her lifestyle is awesome or insane, and I suppose it's probably
both, but I always find it fun to read her blog and find out where in the
world she is on that particular day.

Well on Friday night, she was in Cleveland. She and her brother rolled in
around 11 PM, and after I'd kept her up for an hour talking (it's been
almost a decade since we first met, which is an amount of time I'd rather
not think about), she informed me they planned on leaving at 4 AM. Not
only did this mean that a Saturday trip to the Kirtland sites was out (and
by Kirtland sites I really mean the R&R hall of fame), but this also meant
that she is still as crazy slash awesome as she's always been. Planning to
stop for rest only one more time on their quest to make it back to Utah by
Sunday at noon, I sent them on their way with...well...nothing. I sent
them on their way with nothing, because I was still asleep. And N, you'd
better comment on this one so I know you made it in one piece.

Funny story about my year rooming with N. It was my senior year in
college, and at the time, it really seemed like the best year of my life.
Great roommates, great boyfriend, great to be a senior and about to
graduate. It was the year I finally felt like I had my act together,
educationally, and like I was a contributing adult. Truly a red-letter
year, by anyone's standards. Except N's. Only I didn't know this until
years later when she said to me, "You know, we never really DID anything
that year." Which was confusing, because it had been the best year ever,
and in my mind, we had been doing things all the time. Things like playing
the guitar, baking banana bread, watching movies we borrowed from the
lounge, fun talks in the apartment. I guess as far as venturing outside of
the university itself, we never did any of that. And I never even noticed.
And this, my friends, is how I came to realize that I'm a homebody.
(Although crying like a baby when I left home really should have clued me
in.)