Friends In Many Seasons

We've had the great gift of having wonderful friends in every place we've lived in the past (still working on that here, but I'm sure friends will come!). On the first day of class in Spokane, I headed up to explore the student lounge with classmates from my writing class. In that lounge, I met two girls: Erica and Maila. They were roommates who lived nearish to my apartment, and we chatted and got to know each other while others played pool and had that awkward first-week-of-school conversation. They became friends with my roommates and we all went apple picking sometime in the first few weeks of school (picture here). We went to Phantom of the Opera together (here), went ice skating (here), and had a few adventures over the semester.

My second semester in Spokane, one of my roommates transferred to Moody's main campus in Chicago, so she was replaced by Erica, whose own roommate situation from the first semester was changing up. Maila went to live with some girls by the school (we used to go over there and watch Steel Magnolias basically all the time) and she got married just before Christmas in 2011 (here). But during the spring of 2009, Erica and I hung out together quite a lot. We basically bonded over the fact that both of us were really terrible about going to bed at a decent time, which meant essentially that we did absolutely nothing just about every night until like two in the morning. We watched LOST over Spring Break, had heartfelt conversations about I can't remember what, and laughed way too loud way too late.

I only lived with Erica for that one semester, but she is one of my greatest friends from Spokane (for the record I feel funny saying that because basically all my friends in Spokane feel like the greatest friends ever). And for some reason, our paths have kept crossing since we've moved away. In 2012, we moved to Ohio just in time for her wedding... in Ohio (here). And since she's from Akron which isn't far from Cleveland, any time she came to visit, we got to see her (Christmas, Fourth of July, Christmas again, Spring Break, just before we moved). And then she and Zack moved to Michigan in 2013 so they were closer... score. And then we moved away in 2014, which should have meant that we wouldn't see each other for awhile... and they moved to Kentucky which was closer to Florida but still over 10 hours away. We would never see each other right? But we were wrong. It worked out to make a detour up to Louisville where they moved last year to spend a day exploring. And just this week, they were able to make a detour to see us on their way down to Destin.

All that to say "our friends came to visit"? Why yes. Because I think it's neat how paths cross and how things come together and even though you're from South Carolina and Ohio you go to school in eastern Washington and somehow when you move from there you end up a few hours apart in Michigan and Ohio, and then somehow keep being able to meet up even though you move to Kentucky and Florida. It's neat. And I think it's ordained. Ordained when you can't see your friends but for one season, and ordained when you get to keep seeing people through different seasons moves, changes. I've known Erica since our sophomore year of Moody almost seven years ago and I'm so thankful for all the times we've had... the up-till-3am seasons and the yeah-its-9:45-and-I'm-tired-and-have-to-work-tomorrow seasons (that was how it was as they visited us). It's so good having people to travel with you through life, even if they aren't right there all the time.

So... do I have as many pictures as I've had words? No. And you're probably thankful for that.

They arrived Monday night at 7:45, we chatted for two hours and went to bed. I left for work at 4am, got home at 11am (it still felt very lengthy I assure you) and then we explored just a little. We walked all over the Florida State campus in 85 degree weather with some wicked humidity (probably the first really humid day this year... and it's just April) and then had lunch at Newks. Carson was conveniently in between obligations and got to explore with us. They had to leave right after lunch, but I'm thankful for the time, as short as it was.

Classics library - Carson's favorite spot on campus.  

Setting up the tripod