I'm 10 days late for my blog-i-versary.
But that is right in keeping with the way I like to run my life.
I like to keep it spontaneous and fun.
Or as some others would refer to it, forgetful and haphazard.
But if I had a choice to spend my 1st blog birthday weekend
any way I wanted, it couldn't have landed on a better weekend.
There is a small village of people that I spent the formative
years of my adulthood with.
People I lived with, ate with and came of age with.
People who knew me with big hair and MC Hammer genie pants.
Those who hail from Bethany College from the years of 1988-1994.
Now don't get all caught up on the math. Cut a girl some slack.
Sometimes is takes people longer than 4 years to finish college.
They decide they need to take a year off to go with YWAM.
And then they go from being a psych major to an early childhood
development major to a social science major and sometimes they have
taken a whole lot of credits that don't even apply to any one of these
majors and then other times they failed bonehead english twice because
both times it just so happens that when this class took place
they were laying on a beach catching some fantastic rays.
Really I should have gotten my BA in simply being "social" and
not so much a BA in social science. Don't ask for my transcripts.
They're not pretty, people. But did I make friends? Oh, yes I did.
And some carloads of these friends with their children,
because it seems we are a prolific people, came over for smores on friday night.
These are the people that I share great stories with.
That I lip sync-ed with. Oh how we loved to lip sync.
That I performed odd dances with while we lip synched. Shout out to Jane!
That I went to the Junior Senior Banquet with. Shout out to Shane!
That I chatted about relationships and fashion with
as our then-boyfriends-now-husbands rapped together.
At very hot outdoor gatherings and juvenile halls. Shout out to Anna!
There is something about shared memories and possibly, poor grades, that
ties peoples hearts together. Especially when you are young and free and
full of possibilities. These are the people I shared my dreams with.
And then on Friday night we shared some popcorn and laughter and crazy kids
and riding a green machine (yes, grown men riding a child's big wheel)
and then we shared some prayer.
And it was good. Because when you have a point in time that you can
look back on and say because of those 4 (or 6) years of my life,
I have these relationships and you still have them 14 years after you graduate?
(Dear Lord, say it isn't so! I am older than Methusalah...but I did start
college at the age of 17 so let's not forget that important point)
Well, it absolutely does not get any better than that.
Hence the perfect weekend to enjoy a 1 year web log birthday.
And so we must celebrate this great occasion with a giveaway.
Because that is how we like to do things up in here.
Nominate yourself and your best college girlfriend -
(that you still know because you must have their address or
how can we send the giveaway?)
with your best college story
or the reason you still chat on the phone twice a week
or why she makes you laugh harder than anyone else on this planet in the
"get your comments on" section of the blog,
and you could quite possibly win a luscious lip gloss,
Rhythm by Rimmel, that I am wearing in my famous photo a la Bonnie,
plus a $10 Starbucks card for the pair of you.
Because even if you can't get together,
you can have shiny lips and sip beverages while you chat on the phone
as you celebrate your winning of the giveaway.
The contest will end Thursday night at midnight.
Winner picked by the random integer fairy and announced on Friday's post.
God speed, tsgs! I'm looking foreward to your stories!
9 comments:
My best college girlfriend was Amanda, who lives in Minneapolis and is almost engaged!
My favorite memory of our time together (we lived together for a year), was when she was trying to cheer me up and decided dancing was the best option. First she did her crazy leg dance, where she grabbed on to one foot like a quad stretch and proceeded to bounce around the room like a drunken pigeon. Then she hopped up onto our heating/cooling unit by the window and pretended to be a monkey for my amusement and that of those below.
I love her because even though she is a serious person (she's 26 and has a BA, MBA, and a JD), she can be wonderfully silly as well. I love the silliness. We don't talk on the phone a lot because she works from 7am-8pm, but we wish we could and I can't wait to go to her wedding in Napa Valley next year.
I have friends like that! Aren't they the greatest? (I was going to say "the bomb" but then I remembered it's not 1998 anymore.)
I actually wrote a post about my college roommate last year. There is NO ONE on the planet who can make me laugh as hard as her, and thanks to our move last fall, we live near each other now. What a gift she is to me.
The one problem, should we win the nomination, is she doesn't drink Starbuck's. She's strictly a Caribou Coffee girl.
But I bet I could get her a mint or something.
Hands down...Angela Sowers is the best college friend any crazy girl like me could ask for! As my college roommate, she kept me sane and put up with all my quirks all four years at APU!
One of many favorite memories of Ang is on one April Fools Day, I stripped her side of the dorm room and laid all of her belongings in our dorm lobby. I put a huge sign that read "Rummage Sale." I even asked for strangers to pretend to go through her stuff as if they were buying. The look on her face when she realized it was her stuff that people were "fighting" over...priceless!
And don't even get me started on the time she set our dorm room on FIRE!!!
How can you not forget a friend like that???!!! Love you Ang!
Hey Susanna. I stumbled on your blog today as a result of having a very boring conference call for work in my left ear and apparently some very effective web surfing going on in my right-brain and fingers. Thanks Google!
As you were strolling down the memory lane of your college years, you didn’t mention the infamous trip to Hawaii with me and Karen Settle (do you ever hear from her?). I actually stumbled across some pictures of that trip the other day.
Anyhow, I am good, living with my wife Kim and our three kids (15, 13, and 8) in Arizona. I work for Wells Fargo and am finishing up my Ph.D.
It was good to stumble onto your blog.
Brian Steckman
brian@steckman.com
Hey Susanna,
I had two roomates at Bethany and you were one of them. The year of the big 87' earthquake!!!! What a year. Besides taking Church History exams I remember the time that a bunch of us girls got together and blew (with coke bottles) the theme song with our Coca Cola shirts for a talent show. That was alot of fun.
My other roomate was Tamra Brown and she was great from the start. She left after one year and I have never seen her again.
I have more memories of you in high school and youth group. You always made me laugh!!!! We sure talked about the boys.........can you believe we are both married now!!! And have kids........we gave birth!!!!!! We have arrived!!!!
You still make me laugh everytime I read your blog........
When are you coming to Modesto. Here I am in the place you always came to and now you never come!!!! Would love to talk sometime.
Long live the 80's...........
Love,
Cari (Dunn) Brown
One of my closest college girlfriends is Margo.
Not only do we have lots of memories but we both love free stuff so I thought I'd write about her.
She is the most wonderful friend for so many reasons. She lives in Atlanta and I live in DC but we still manage to see each other when one of us has a baby or some other important life event.
We can pick up the phone when we are about to lose our minds with our kids and we can hang up whenever we need to, no feelings hurt.
The funniest memory I have (which there are many) is Margo's superhero costume to make me laugh...She got a pair of men's tightie whities (which she wore on the outside of her jeans), a superwoman t-shirt and would stand outside of our apartment and pretend to fly (it really did look like she was flying) occasionally adding a broom.
She is the person that I can always call, always pick up where we left off, and always wish that she lived a little closer.
Ok. Here's the deal. I was in college for a mere 6 months. In that time, I met my now husband who I devoted nearly all of my energy into and therefore lacked the ability to focus on dear life-long friendships. My 2 buddies that were there in my dorm room have since lost contact with me in the last few years and I have no great story to share. I feel that bearing my soul in this deep and vulnerable way should surely allow me to be a part of a lip gloss and Starbucks giveaway. Please consider my plea. Have some pity. I'm not kiddin' around Susanna! :-)
I have lots of great memories of college and most of it has to do with my friends...one friend in particular, though. Kim Sage was the best roommate EVER! We lived together for 2 1/2 years. Years filled with lots of laughs, dressing up for harvest parties, blasting some good 80's music (on a record player), eating lots of brownies, living through boyfriend drama, and even managing to graduate...I love you Kim!
My college roommate and I loved to pull pranks on a certain group of boys. One day we went over to their house and found the door open. So we proceeded to sabotage their apartment by filling their silverware tray with water and putting it in the freezer and other equally destructive and creative antics. As we were working our way through their apartment all 5 of them came home. We made up a quick excuse for why we were there and started for the car. To our dismay one of the guys wanted a ride so we quickly let him into the car and locked all the doors. As soon as the doors were locked the 4 other guys came running out of their house with buckets of water. We pulled away as water hit the windshield and the guy in the back seat having no idea why his roommates were after us. We got away that time, but at the end of the year picnic all 5 boys threw us into the creek and one later became the man I'd spend the rest of my life with. We still all keep in touch and recently had a reunion with all of our families. We sat around telling hilarious stories of our college days.
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