19 years of friendship

In August 19 years ago I arrived at SVU as a freshman. The first person I met was my randomly assigned roommate, Lauren. We immediately discovered that we share a birthday and over the next few months, we became best friends. We are still BFFs that talk and send messages to each other weekly. I got to go visit her and her family in their new house in St. Louis this week! It was a quick four-day trip: I got up at 4am and flew to St. Louis on Wednesday, August 9th and flew home on the evening of Saturday, August 12th, arriving home after midnight. I made the most of those four days! 

During our 3.5 days together, we mostly hung out and did everyday things like clean, cook, walk, watch shows, and drive her kids to appointments. We also went out to eat good food every day. The best part about having a longtime best friend is that we don't have to DO big grand activities to have a fun, worthwhile, happy visit! It is a treat just to spend time together. We didn't even have any catching up to do, because we stay in touch regularly. It was so GOOD to be together in person!

Airport art inspiration.

Having lived in Missouri myself long ago, I knew that it was humid. But it was HUMID. I sweated so much, but that didn't stop me from going on three runs and a walk while I was there!

While I was running at Kirkwood park, I saw a high school cross country team practicing. I went over and chatted with the coaches, and the next day that I ran past them, they waved at me. The running community is MY FAVORITE.

As Amber would say, "So much nature!"

One of the heavenly restaurants we went to was Sweetie Cup Thai. Yum.

Their dog reminded me so much of my childhood dog. Left: Sunny, circa 1995. Right: Kipper in 2023.

Seriously, he was a humble hound just like Sunny. I kept feeling this kinship with him. I didn't take any pictures of Lauren's 3 human children, but I took several of the dog!

We went on a sweatfest of a 4 mile walk one morning, and saw this cool Starry Night fire hydrant.

Kirkwood City Hall. I think I sweated about the same amount, whether I was running, walking, or sitting--haha.

Kipper the dog liked to come back from his walk to sit in the SUN and pant. He always chose the sun, not a cooler shadier patch of floor. I liked how the sun streamed through this window, backlighting the dog.

One night we got Andy's Frozen Custard with Laurs' youngest son, Lukas. Frozen custard may be more heavenly than ice cream. Or maybe it was just extra necessary to consume cool creamy goodness in that oppressive humidity--haha. I got a key lime pie concrete and it was blissful.

Another drippy run. This time I left my shirt at home but it didn't really help keep me cooler.

The Snow family's house was on a quiet street in Kirkwood.

Possibly my favorite restaurant we went to was called Balkan Treat Box. I can't pronounce or spell what we got, but it was all AMAZING.

I scoured my old pictures from college and managed to find four pictures of us back at the beginning. It was before selfies were a thing, and I didn't get a digital camera until my sophomore year of college, so these are from 2005. We really weren't very good at taking pictures together, but these still make me smile and bring back so many good memories. Lifelong friendships are the best!!

Laurs dropped me off at the airport on Saturday afternoon (August 12th) and it felt too soon for every part of me but my hair. My hair freaked out in the humidity, so I had to keep it tightly braided. Even then, the wisps went wild.

The next morning, before my hair realized I was back in dry central Washington, it POOFED bigger than I've ever seen it. I was a lioness. I washed it to tame it before I had to get up front and give a talk in church.

Until next time, my dear friend!