Safely back in 2004

My reunion was a lot of fun. The weekend itself was fun, but I wound up being more sleep deprived than I thought I would be. Too much to talk about, I'll write about the reunion itself later.

I arrived Friday night, 6:00 p.m. at the airport. I grew up in Southern California and was there until five years ago. Frequent visits often remind me of the differences between Boise and Orange County, but Friday night traffic jarred me into reality. I puposely did not take the freeway but streets to my Mom's house, looking for changes since my last trip a year ago, and was thrown into a a sea of humanity I was unprepared for. My drive took me through both affluent and less than affluent areas, and I noted that among the changes I saw (and there were many) was that those differences were more pronounced. I saw more and more fancier cars by South Coast Plaza, and more shady strip malls, liquor stores, and graffiti down by First and Bristol. It was hard to take it all in.

Went to dinner with my Mom and brother, my best friend and her Mom, and another girlfriend and her friend from out of town. Sat in the restaurant for three hours, just catching up and talking, enjoying a grown up dinner without "Mom, I have to go to the bathroom", "Mom, I don't like this cheese on the plate," etc. I rarely drink in front of my kids, had a nice apple martini with dinner and got to enjoy that, too. It was really nice to be single and grown up again for a few hours.

Stayed at my Mom's on Friday night. I don't have a room there any more, so my brother gave me his bed and he slept on the couch. He and I stayed up for a few hours talking about half a dozen things, going throught the latest acquisitions to my Disney pin collection, and about his new job, but I called it quits around 1 a.m. (2 a.m. in Boise), because I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. Apparently had no problem four hours later, when my body alarm clock told me it was 6 a.m. and time to get up. I stayed in bed but couldn't get back to sleep, and felt the headache coming on. Headache or hangover? Off one stupid drink? Just goes to show you -- I'm a tequila, rum, brandy kind of girl, the vodka must have thrown me for a loop.

And the best part of the weekend -- doing the girlfriend thing with my best friend. She wasn't going to the reunion, had something else going on in her life. I had to buy a new purse and some stockings. So she picked me up Saturday morning and we went shopping and had lunch. I miss being able to do that. I've got new friends here in Boise, and I enjoy my life here, but I miss my close girlfriends, the ones I've known almost my entire life. And it wasn't necessarily the shopping, but just being able to talk without interruption about all those girlfriend things, easily the best part of the weekend.