friend weekend

For the first weekend in October, several of my college girls met in Chicago for a '10-year-friend-reunion,' marking 10 years since we started college and met in the isolated cornfields of Indiana.  While it seemed really normal at the time, our school might as well have been on a deserted island for all the entertainment the surrounding towns offered.  But that was apparently the perfect atmosphere for good times and forever friendships!  

During our senior year, a group of us moved into a house off-campus together.  However quaint we thought it was, it has since been condemned and torn down.  The memories live on . . . 

This is the oldest pic I could find of us, from senior year. 

You can bet if Groupon existed, we would've had that on a giant canvas in our living room.

Alas, in 2005, when that picture was taken, Groupon had not been born.
Facebook was in its infancy and only for college students.  I remember some of us signing up that year.
Still not everyone had a cell phone.  Remember phone cards?
Phones were not smart, and I don't think I texted at all then.
Email had just been invented.
NO, just kidding, we're not that old!
Instant Messanger was in full swing during our early college years and we had fun remembering each others' screen names.

We had a lot of run reminiscing.  Hilarious professors, classmates, and phrases we used to say all the time were resurrected for the weekend.  I am really glad I have these girls - not just because of the growing we did together or how they just 'get me,' but because they help me remember!  

We spent so much time talking, I forgot to take many pictures.  If I had, they would've been of us curled up on couches.  I do like this one:

Welcoming back our little African princess from three years in Kenya!

And here's a shot of the whole group:

Thank you, friends, for flying and driving across America!  It was so special to be together!