Someone Built Me a Cake

today has been a good, full day. lauren, rachel, tara, and i headed down to lockland (i think) to get fitted for our bridesmaid dresses for lauren's wedding next may. it's a pretty dress. maybe i'll try and post a picture of it on here sometime soon. we randomly saw a girl from high school while i was there and i was reminded of my quite often jerky mentality when i told rachel to pretend like she hadn't seen her. not because i don't like the girl, but just to avoid that really odd "i haven't seen you in five years" awkward conversation where you realize that the only real thing you have in common is that you went to high school together five years ago. not to justify my gut reaction of how to respond to jodi--like i said before, it just reminds me that i'm not actually as nice as i think i am. of course, rachel IS that nice (which is probably why she's my best friend--because she can overcome my really illogical suggestions on how to respond to situations such as the aforementioned), and so she grinned and gave her a big wave.

afterward rachel, tara, and i headed to the International house of pancakes (ihop) and i had a big old stack of buttermilk pancakes with maple syrup. it was SPECTACULAR.

that was full enough for me, but i still had a big night ahead and so i took a quick hour nap, woke up, cleaned myself up, and went to the Olive Garden (an amazing italian restaurant) with Lauren, Anne, Stephanie, Sarah, Alli, Jennifer, Rachel, and Tara. We went to Rachel's when we were finished and hung out and chatted for four hours.

Conclusions for the night?

I have incredibly beautiful friends. Seriously. I'm not saying that to be cheesy. My friends are really, really hot. I'll try to post a picture. They are a good looking bunch. How did I ever wriggle into their inner circle?

Not only are they hot, but they're incredibly loyal. They came in from all over to spend some time with me tonight. They even bought me a "welcome home" cake. Can you believe that?!? I felt really loved. Sarah Logan left work came straight here--arrived around 5:30 and is leaving in the morning. I....think that is pretty great.

and finally, the friends that you've had the longest are the best. the ones you can tell stories about from 4, 8, and 10 years ago and they crack up, because they were there. i love new friendships. i love developing friendships. but it's nice to come back to people who know you THAT well. to know that people exist like that in the world (even if most of the time you happen to be about a quarter of the way across it).