Posts tagged ohio university

We spent last weekend in West Virginia for Courtney & Tom’s amazing wedding. It was exactly what I think we all needed and will go down in the books as one of the best of all time. 

And when I say we, I don’t mean just the husband and I. The best thing about my best friends is that three years after graduation, after the loss of one of our own, several address changes, one international move, the subsequent return, and now two weddings, we’re still very much a we. We still refer to each other as my roommates. Not my old roommates, not my college roommates, just my roommates.  

And personally, I hope that never changes. 

Everything about the wedding and reception was absolute perfection. 

I mean, go ahead. Try to tell me that you have ever seen a more beautiful bride. Yeah, I didn’t think so.  

The rest of us clean up pretty well, too. 

But then we do things like this, and any credibility we’d earned, goes right out the window. 

The husband and I even managed to take a somewhat respectable photo. 

Brittany tried to one-up me with my own man, but Chad and his background creeping saved me. 

Of course, we danced our asses off. 

And sang a whole lot of Gaga. 

Kimmy did things like that.

And Brittany made faces like this. 

Essentially, we may have fancied ourselves up with make up, dresses, high heals, suits, and ties, but we were still exactly the same as we’ve always been. We were silly, happy, drunk, and completely, head over heals in love with each other. 

These are the kind of friends that save you from yourself. The kind that last a lifetime and that are always at the core of your heart. 

These are the people who remind me of how infinitely lucky I am. 

Congratulations Tom & Courtney! Thank you for a beautiful day and a crazy night. Well done, friends.  

Less than a month ago, I told you guys all about my college town, Athens, Ohio, and about my constant struggle to let her go. Almost three and a half years after my graduation, I’m still living in a post-college let down. And I’m constantly wanting to go back home. 

Well, last Thursday I got to do just that. 

And I got to share that rainy, chilly, yet completely perfect day with two of my very best friends. 

We shopped like it was going out of style…

ate like we were in need of the freshman fifteen…

danced like we had nothing to worry about…

and drank like the last three years never happened. 

It was a perfect celebration of the social and silly half of the life we shared down there. Athens is the kind of town where you can make friends with anyone. It has the uncanny ability to bring people together. With the setting of the sun, something in that town subtly and effortlessly blurs the lines that normally exist between strangers and enemies. It makes everyone prettier, nicer, funnier, easier to accept and more accepting. Athens is the great equalizer, but not in that break you down kind of way. Instead, it makes you better than you’ve ever been.

It’s easy to fall in love in Athens. 

But there is another side of it. Or at least another side of who that town let me be. 

I’ve always been the kind of person who is okay spending time alone; largely, I suppose, because I always feel very strongly connected to other people, even when they are nowhere to be found. But before college I struggled to find a balance between my loner side and my need to have a close-knit group of friends. 

Somehow, in Athens, that balance became easy and graceful. It’s like there is more life to live in that town. More time and space, plenty of both to accommodate every side of who I needed to be. And as you can imagine, I’m at my best when I’m allowed to be everything that I am—loner and best friend, dreamer and doer, soft spoken observer and opinionated writer. 

And I guess that’s what I’m still craving—the quiet and the space. The walking through college green with no purpose or direction. The lingering in a coffee shop for countless hours. The time between classes that you never knew what to do with until you didn’t have it. I miss the freedom.

As I type that word, freedom, I imagine what you all must be thinking. If long for freedom, I must feel trapped. And I guess I do, in a way. But I take myself captive; it’s not at the hands of anyone else. I don’t explore and wander here like I did in Athens. I’ve become a bit of a shut-in and being back home, even just for a day, even with friends to distract me, has given me the taste of freedom I needed.

Last weekend, I returned to the one place on this earth that is most familiar to me. This weekend, I’m just hoping to get lost for awhile. 

And I suppose that’s an accurate measure of a home worth having: While you’re there, you cherish the feelings it gives you. And once you’ve left, you crave the very opposite of those feelings. If it were any other way, we’d never leave home and then those special feelings would get lost in the resentment of every day bullshit. 

 These are the things I tell myself to justify not being where I belong. 

I will be spending today here…

with these girls…

Then, heading to Wheeling, WV for the wedding of this lovely lady…

Life does not get any better! 

See you Monday. 

“To change your life: Start immediately, do it flamboyantly, no exceptions”
—William Jones 

I read this today and it struck a very poignant chord with me. As you all know, I’m in the process of making some changes and trying my best, every day. I’ve accepted that my best is all that can be expected. But the past few days, I’ve fallen short of that goal. I’m giving myself a pass though, because I was feeling rather shitty thanks to my sinuses. But in my down time, I set a new goal for myself. 

I have some serious baggage that needs to ship the %*#% out.

Three years ago, I went through a really bad breakup. At the time, I didn’t see it as such but I got dumped. The love of my life, the heart of my heart, OU, dumped me.  

We called it graduation, but at the end of the day, it felt more like a funeral than a celebration. The end of an era… 

I’m smiling in the pictures, but I cried for hours that night. And for the large majority of the five hour drive home the next day. I still cry, from time to time, for that beautiful place and those four wonderful years. 

OU is my home in the truest sense of the word. It is where I feel the most alive. It changed me indelibly and I am forever grateful. But OU is my past, not my present or my future, and because of this, I have to let her go.  

Fall is the worst. I have always been a back-to-school lover: new clothes, cooler weather, school supplies (don’t even get me started), football games, and most importantly, the beautiful routine that required me to see my best friends every damn day. There is nothing better. And that love grew times a thousand, when back to school started meaning back to this: 

I mean, is there really anything more beautiful? 

No, absolutely not. Other than the people I shared it with. 

And I guess that’s the upside. I got to take all those people with me when I left. They may be spread all over the country, but they are mine and I am theirs and that will never change.

But everything else has. And it’s time to let go. Because as I said, fall is the hardest because it’s always been my favorite time of year. And nowadays, instead of enjoying it for what it is and what it has the potential to be, I long for autumn in Athens. Fall is good for longing: the cool breeze, cozy sweaters, rainy days. 

It’s different down there. Lasts longer. The weather stays a little warmer and because of such, the trees can hold onto their red, and orange, and gold leaves for months it seems. Autumn in Athens is exactly what God intended. 

But fall in Cleveland can be just as beautiful. And this goal is about starting to appreciate that, celebrating what is instead of longing for what was. 

And what is, is two eager puppies, a beautiful day, and just a hint of golden leaves right outside my door, so you’ll have to excuse me. 

__________________________

Photos:

• Best Friends at a Funeral, graduation, June 2008, personal collection
• Two Spice Girls, Veruca Salt, and SNL’s Pat, Halloween 2007, personal collection
• College Green, Ohio University, 2011, OU Alumni Association
• Junction Kisses, Homecoming 2007, personal collection
• Fall in Cleveland, September 2011, personal collection

I saw this gorgeous cream sweater on J.Crew’s Factory Outlet site and instantly wanted to fast forward to fall. Because I can’t do that, I decided to mock up how a sweater like that should be worn. I love the booties, but would most likely opt for flats in my everyday life, so I had to include both. 

Can’t believe Labor Weekend, the official start to fall, is only two weeks away. This summer flew by. For me, the cooler weather and turning leaves always makes my heart ache for one thing: home. What does it make you long for? 

______________________________________

Photos:

• Cable Belted Cardigan: J.Crew Factory Store
• Perfect Crew and Skinny Trousers: Old Navy
• Wycliff Booties, Maddox Flats, and Nadine Bag: Piperlime

This past weekend was big for me, really big. Like cross-it-off-the-to-do-before-I-die-list big. I took my first (and of course second) ever plane ride(s). Okay, well not technically. Mom says there was a Florida to Ohio plane trip when I was a baby. But I was probably about 18 months old, I surely didn’t have my own seat, most likely didn’t have my own ticket, and I definitely don’t remember it… so, moot point. 

I was never against flying; in fact, it was something I’ve always wanted to do—hence the bucket list. But my family has always travelled by car (despite both my mother and father absolutely hating traffic) and I otherwise haven’t done much traveling. B and I spent our honeymoon in Boston and although hopping a plane would have been quicker and probably less of a hassle, (Parking in Boston blows. There’s simply no other word for it.) we had plans outside the city and renting a car on three separate occasions during a ten day trip just seemed silly. So we drove and flying remained on the list. 

But come the middle of May, I had a little tax return money still hanging around, a wide-open, four day weekend in June, and a friend in Jersey whom I simply needed. After a particularly rough week and a couple glasses of wine, my mind was made up. I was going to New Jersey, I was going alone, and I was going by plane. 

I love my husband. And Jess LOVES my husband. And the two have already made me promise that I bring him along for the next trip. But four days in Jersey with her and without him was exactly what I needed. There are just some conversations that he doesn’t need to hear and that I’d just be upset with him for not remembering two weeks later anyways. 

So… we spent four days as follows: drunk food on a sober stomach and girl talk until 2 am; the farmer’s market; baby swooning; swimsuit shopping; California Pizza King with her work husband; red wine and penne vodka with her roommate at Rick’s (Hole in the Wall/Best Italian You’ll Find Anywhere) Restaurant; a short walk to Pennsylvania; Blue Moons, dancing, and a rather tipsy walk home from Pennsylvania; OU reminiscing; Rice’s Flea Market; Bad Teacher; dinner with her wonderful family; Sex & the City and white wine with Pandora—the sweet little pup we were dog-sitting for a friend of hers; beach-bumming and tide-jumping at the shore; pizza and True Blood in the most adorable little house in all of New Jersey (a renovated school house); Reading Terminal Market and Pat’s cheese steaks in Philly; not enough hugs and only the tears I couldn’t hold back. 

Just some general secret sharing, confession telling, heart wrenching, cheaper than therapy healing. It was exactly what I needed. 

Moral of the story: true friends are priceless, good friends give you the excuse to cross something off your bucket list, great friends do so much more. 

Meet my family.

Aren’t they lovely.

We spent this weekend together—catching up, coming clean, eating, drinking, dancing, and laughing.

I woke up Sunday morning knowing that the home I own contained within its walls, five of the people in this world whom I hold most dear to my heart. 

I am a very lucky girl.

I miss them already.