9 posts tagged “friends”

My meet-up last night went unbelievably well. We hit it off and talked for hours about everything under the sun, we really share a laundry list of hobbies and interests, so we chittered and chattered away. I got there at 7:00 and by what felt like 9:00 I was getting tired, she yawns and checks her cell phone for the time, only to find that it was actually 12:00 and she had missed six calls from her husband. Midnight! We had sat in the coffee shop and talked for five hours straight! Stunned we grabbed our coats and headed to the parking lot in the dark of downtown. As she asks where my car is, I look over to see an empty parking lot. Heart pounding I say "It's gone!" I went through the possible situations, I locked it, even double checked as I walked away, I then realized it had been towed. I parked in a private parking lot with a sign barely visible and hidden within a hedge. I wrote down the towing companies info and she graciously drove me the five minutes down the road to my house.

I came home to Jon asleep, cellphone next to the bed, and a worried tone in his voice. I can only imagine being in his place, his wife goes off to meet someone online and does not come home, does not answer her phone. I'd have been a bundle of nerves. I tried my best to tell him I'd lost track of time and that the car had been towed but everything was a little foggy to him, still half asleep. This morning I gave him a quick review of the night and we've made plans for him to take me to pick up my car at lunch.

I've called the towing company and the fee will be $114 cash. I cant help but be upset with myself for not reading the sign, its a costly mistake. But having had my car towed before I can honestly say I'm relived at the price, its half of what I had to pay the last time while living in Orlando.

All in all even after the car and lack of sleep, I believe the night was a real success and I had a great time getting to know someone, in real life.

My friends are late risers, the plan was to head to the Rolex around lunch time though I'd rather have been there bright and early on Saturday. Instead we all met up for lunch and then lazily made our way to the Horse Park to catch the cross-country event. A couple of our friends were ahead of us and patiently waiting in the parking lot. We drove up the interstate a few miles and reached the Horse Park exit only to find it was blocked off, in fact every single road leading to the park had been barricaded. Come to find out... we'd missed it! It was just shy of 4:00 and we'd missed the final event.

I was bummed and I could tell everyone else could care less, so I nominated the idea of ice-cream and built a smile and a better mood with a chocolate peanut butter blitz from Graters.

Neon Flowers

The evening ran on and we ended up chatting, drinking, and even playing a couple games of corn-hole into the late night hours. Everyone trying their very best to fight sleep and old age. The goal was to make it to 1:00am and as the clock passed the hour we were in our cars heading home to our comfy beds. I really enjoyed the company of everyone we met that night, I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to spend the day with.

So Laura, though I promised many pictures of the Rolex and its four star contenders, the best I can do is a group shot of silly girls with dollar store flowers in their hair.

We have a guest! Our good friend JD is flying from Florida to visit us for the weekend. Jon and I decided to really show him what Kentucky is all about so we packed the weekend full of some memorable and classically Kentucky activities.

Friday: Backpacking and camping at Cave Run Lake.
Saturday: Afternoon at Keeneland and a drive through Lexington.
Sunday: Trip to Louisville for an Iron & Wine concert and a walk down Bardstown with a quick stop at ear X-tacy.

I'm sure we will all be fully worn come Monday morning but it will be worth every sleep deprived moment. I cannot wait to get this weekend started and welcome JD to our town.

Saturday night, after a few pounds of southern cooking and combo pie at Ramsey's Diner, we had a few beers and wii tournaments into the early hours of the morning. I laughed at Carolyn's hilarious punches as she royally kicked my little wii's digital behind. I had almost peed myself when her boyfriend used the term "wiimote" in such a serious manner. We raced cows and I could hardly keep in the giggles as my little brown cow jumped hurdles with its legs swinging rapidly in the wind. I couldn't believe the excitement when we drove to Meijer at 11pm so that Carolyn could buy guitar hero, which by the way we couldn't put down for the rest of the night and played until the morning.

Since moving away from all that I knew in Florida, its been hard to meet new people and I feel relieved and happy to now have someone to laugh with, thank goodness for the Carolyns of the world.

When I first moved to Kentucky I hadn't known a single soul within a hundred miles, luckily I had a few nice neighbors and because of them managed to develop a social life while living in our first apartment. We all parted ways a year later, one going to Louisville, the other to Alabama and myself to Lexington. Another year has passed and one of the girls has moved back and is a ten minutes drive away. Jon and I invited her and her new boyfriend over for drinks on Friday, it was so nice to have someone to giggle and chat with, we had so much catching up to do. The boys seemed to get along fairly well too. When the night ended they invited us to their super bowl party and we happily accepted.

Though the super bowl was a bust and possibly the most boring game I've ever watched, it didn't phase me... I'm just so excited to have Carolyn back in my life again.

A two hour drive south and I'm all ohhs and ahhhs about the changes in scenery. It has been about five years since I've been back to my home town. The population growth of south west Florida is nothing new to me, having lived in a quickly developing area for over twenty years, but dammed if I wasn't shocked and amazed at how much had changed since I had been gone. Towering buildings, shopping centers, mansions galore... I could hardly recognize the place.

Once I had gotten over the shock of if it all I headed to the surf shop (our old teenage hot spot) to meet a few friends, the shop hadn't changed much and neither had its customers. We met up with Captain Scuba-Steve (a childhood friend) and Tracey (my college roommate) with her boyfriend Leo in tow. We all had lots of catching up to do and we spent the afternoon and into the evening over beach-side drinks and good conversation. It was so good to see my friends, to set comfortably into my old social crowd and just be me. There were a number of people who had wanted me to stop by and say hello while in town, but as daylight faded and we watched the sunset fall I still hadn't left the side of my two best buds.

Maybe another year, maybe another trip.

I've reached a point in my life where I'm comfortable with everything around me. Family, work, lifestyle... this is usually the time when I like to mix things up and run move away. This time its going to be different, I'm done with moving. I'm going to have to fight the mundaneness of staying in one place because I cant go on moving every six months like I have for the past five years. I want roots, familiarity and a sense of community. This town offers that and all I need to do is stick around long enough to make it home.

That and attempt the almost impossible quest to find friends with similar interests...
Why is this so hard?

Scuba-Steve (a long time childhood friend) drove up from Marco Island to visit me for the day. He gave me all of the gossip from back home and I laughed the whole time. It’s amazing to hear his stories of chaos and drama of all my old friends and their daily lives back home.

I showed him around town a bit and we had dinner at a great little restaurant down by the beach with a grouper sandwich to die for! We walked along the sandy shore and shared our opinions on life and what our goals were for the future. I’m so proud of him and happy to call him a friend.