A GRAND (Rapids) Old Time

Carson doesn't appear in this post at all, though he was around. 

Recently, Carson had a conference in Grand Rapids. He's gone to this particular conference several times, including Valentine's Day of this year and around Halloween last year. He always talks about how I'd like Grand Rapids, but since he's in meetings for the event from 9-9 every day, I've never really wanted to join him. I mean, sure, there's the free hotel thing, but even my deep love for watching random TV in hotels has a limit, and four days of that and only that is just past that point. 

But this spring and summer, not one but THREE close friends of mine from college moved to the Grand Rapids area. Two college roommates and one Reilly Building housemate. 

Now I want to go to Grand Rapids. Obviously. 

So we drove over there (it took us 4.5 hours. Not bad.), I dropped Carson off at his hotel, and drove to where Rachel and John are living, about 30 minutes away from the city. I spent Thursday evening-Saturday morning with them. During that time, Rachel and I had our first Pumpkin Spice Lattes of the season (sure, we both make 800 of them a day, but we didn't want to taste them until it felt like fall). We shopped a little, caught up, had a little Lindsay-feels-sorry-for-herself-because-she-has-poison-oak Blizzard pick-me-up, and had a grand time. Get it? GRAND Rapids? Nevermind. 

Forgive the double chin. That's why more sorry-for-myself Blizzards aren't in my near future.

The morning I left Rachel and John to go back to the city, I had to scrape the car for ice. Just when I think Cleveland weather is the worst... 

I went to Carson's hotel, threw my stuff in the room, and rested until it was time to meet Erica and Molly for a day of exploration. We meandered, walking around the streets before we remembered that we aren't very good at meandering without a plan. So then we had lunch and drove around. 

We ended up at the mall, because Molly had decided that her hair was too long and due for a cut. Here's a before picture of us. In the spirit of full disclosure, this was taken just outside of a public restroom. We ooze class. 

The before and after shots. Yes we returned to the bathroom just for a picture. Yes, we got funny looks. Yes, her hair is adorable and YES, I was tempted to cut mine a few inches shorter when I saw how cute her cut was. 

Hair chopped off, we decided that a drive around the city was a good idea.

"The Joke" - you know how "A blonde, a brunette and a redhead walked into a bar?" Well, look at us, we're basically THAT joke. So we sometimes call ourselves that (mostly me). 

We ended up exploring the hotel. Here's the link.

We concluded our day together with dinner. Unlike the dinners we had in college, this one did not consist of canned peas, fried eggs and popcorn. It was also considerably more expensive. 

I spent the evening watching the random TV I enjoy so much until Carson came back at 11 or so. After he met up with John for breakfast the next morning, we jumped in the car and went back to Cleveland, where we still haven't had to scrape ice off our car. Yet. 

My Crazy College Days...

Once upon a time, I went to college.

I didn't have a crazy college experience. I went to a Bible school and lived with four relatively normal girls my first year. We would stay up late, yes, but it was mostly because we were studying or making music videos to Disney soundtracks. We would stay up till 2am creating funny pictures like this one:

Embarrassing, but not really crazy. 

Anyway, Molly and I both really REALLY wanted to get our noses pierced that year. Apparently, we're not the sort of people to make an impulse decision (plus, it costs $50. $50 is a COMMITMENT.) because we did not get our noses pierced during our first year. We did, however buy glue and a package of rhinestones commonly used as nail art. And then we... well, we glued little rhinestones to our noses just to get the effect.

We LOVED the effect. But we never really had $50 dollars and we weren't sure what our dads would say, so we stuck with rhinestones that kept falling off our faces.

So on and off, we would talk about piercing our precious little noses. Friends began to pierce them and we thought that maybe we'd look too much like we were following another trend. Still, we thought about it. 

Time passed, and we laughed about our rhinestone days. 

More time passed, and we both got married. We still talked about our noses. 

Fast forward to our senior year.

I asked Carson what he thought about my nose getting pierced (I showed him the picture I just showed you) and he said he liked it. I told Molly and we decided that the time had come (this was probably early 2011).

I really don't think I've communicated it enough here, but I am scared of needles and sometimes hyperventilate after I have blood drawn. I also happen to know that they don't use a staple gun on your nose like they do with ears - they use a needle. 

But then again, I had wanted to pierce my nose for over three years. The time had clearly come. I didn't want to be 75 years old and still considering it. There is a window after all. (ps - if you are 75 and want to get your nose pierced, by all means FEEL FREE...)

So we discovered that one of the piercing places nearby had $10 off on Tuesdays. Tuesday it was. Carson was working, and just in case I'd decide to chicken out, I risked the embarrassment of telling him what I was going to do. Days before, I asked for his permission, just to be clear. "So, if I were serious about getting my nose pierced, what would you say? Are you really okay with it? Because I think this time I'm serious." And he said go for it (I don't think he actually cared at all). 

Molly and I went to the mall, full of trepidation. Well, I was. She'd decided not to pierce her nose after all. 

I signed medical releases (scary) and we went into a little room. I had my nose marked with a marker to show where the piercing would go. I okay'd the spot, then they cleaned my nose with a q-tip (I don't think I would like cleaning noses and such as part of my job. I bet they see really gross things.), stuck a little tube up my nose (it was weird), and told me to close my eyes (if I can't see the needle, maybe I won't know it's there). She said "I'm going to count to three and then you'll feel a pinch. "1... pinch". Smart going, lady. I didn't even have time to tense up. It pinched and made my eyes water and then I was told (this is tmi) that it was "gushing" so I kept a cotton ball on it. 

So after that, we went to get ice cream (we'd saved $10, remember?!) to celebrate the accomplishment of a first-year goal... three years later. 

I loved it. Carson was surprised that I went through with it but said he liked it too.

I would have expected that I was responsible enough for such a piercing. And I was, for exactly three days.

I went on a retreat and was toweling off after a shower when suddenly - ow! My nose ring came out and I couldn't get it back in (it was the corkscrew kind and I still don't know how to work them). I used the only substitute I had - a real earring, which seemed normal-sized on my ear, but was ridiculous on my nose. Someone called "diva" because of my bling and everyone laughed at me. I deserved that.

But then one Tuesday later, we found ourselves in that very same little room for Molly - who'd decided to get her tragus (the little flap thing on your ear) pierced. I imagine that hers was much more painful, but she has the highest pain tolerance ever so it wasn't a big deal.

Anyway, that's the story of how crazy we were in college. 

Insane, right?