Bowling, Dancing, and Green Masks... Oh my!

My friends decided to come to me last weekend. While some live only ten minutes away, the others are an hour or six, depending on their method of transportation. I had two pending parties scheduled but it was easy to give them up for a rare weekend with my girls.

The fun started on Friday night with a triple-date. Suzanna, Maria, and I, along with our significant others, met up at a Thai restaurant where the laughs quickly started. These girls have been making tears roll down my face since 2004. I actually met Maria first at our college Chicano graduation. We were sitting next to each other in alphabetical order. There was a classmate breaking the record for the world's longest speech on the stage when Maria made a joke about it. I turned to my left and giggled with her. Then I made another witty comment about the girl at the podium and Maria laughed too. That's when I thought, I like this girl. She's pretty damn funny. She made the ceremony bearable but I didn't expect to come across her again. So it was a very pleasant surprise for me when she walked into the course I was taking to get my teaching credential. She introduced me to her best friend Suzanna, who was just as quirky, and the rest was history. I am thankful now that I didn't own a car or possess a driver's license then because I wouldn't have built the friendship we have had they not driven me to our student-teaching site for four months.



Round two: bowling. Check out our nails! As colorful as we are.

 

Then we graduated, again. Our busy adult lives inevitably took effect and now we only see each other a few times a year. But I can assure you that we make up for lost time by laughing all night. Actually, if you ever want to see me smiling constantly, just take me to these two girls. You won't even recognize me...

Round three: dancing. A Selena potpourri gets us going every time.

On Saturday, I headed to my parent's house in L.A. to see my sister. She carpooled with two other So Cal girls also living in Nor Cal. I had not seen her since May when I flew to Oakland. It's a shame that we live so far away because it's difficult to build a relationship through email or phone messages. But we are trying. We had a quiet evening as a family and then got really crazy when we decided to put on a tea tree oil mask, sip on the new lime-a-ritas I bought at Food-4-Less with 8% alcohol volume per each eight ounce can, and watch a movie. We knocked out during the latter half of Moneyball. It's a great movie, don't get me wrong, exhaustion simply took over.



Lack of sleep + drink with 8% alcohol = this

And last but not least, I met up with another friend of mine on Sunday who also ditched me for Nor Cal after she graduated with her B.A. I met Yesica as a sophomore in college. She was one of my residents when I was a staff member. We joined folklórico and eventually became teachers in opposite ends of the state. We also ran a close race completing grad school. Her life is now complete-- husband, baby, house, dog, career. I never expected her to wait for me until I caught up with her in relation to these aspects of life but I am very happy for her.

Baby was all smiles when the camera was off, I swear.

I hate spending so little time with these girls. The only thing I can do is seize the precious moments we do share. In between visits, I have to remember to utilize my phone and Facebook the way they were intended to: to keep in touch with my best friends.