The Good Times Rolled

Heads up: I'm feeling a bit unconventional tonight. We'll see where this leads us.

I raced up to Trinity again last Friday after I got off from work. (Mom paid me eight dollars to get out the door because I may have been singing along to Moulin Rouge and driving my family crazy.)


How many times have I driven to TIU? Well, I could probably figure it out if I wanted to, but I'm not that diligent. Let's just say, "enough." Enough to not get lost. Well, I missed my exit and ended up driving right through Chicago. Fun start.


No worries- I made it. First thing on the agenda: sushi.

I know, not what I would have chosen either, but it actually turned out to be a great choice. It was pretty good, and there were lots of friendly faces that I had missed dearly.

I accidentally came up with a fantastic nickname. (If I may say so myself!) Pallory.


That's Patrick and Mallory together, in case you didn't know.


This obviously led us to label Jered and me as Jaimee/Ared and Jeremy and Kelly as Jelly. I know... You're probably jealous and wish you had such a nickname. We can work on it if you like.

Well, the eating did not stop there. Nooo sir. In fact, that seemed to go on all weekend. In abundance. Jered and I had a lovely Denny's breakfast, complete with a peach smoothie for me.

Ignas suggested shrimp for our evening with friends, which turned out to be a hit.

Ignas is our friend from Lithuania. After graduation, he's going home, and I will surely miss him. He always makes me laugh. He asked us to go shopping and help him find gifts for some of his friends back home.


While Iggy shopped for gifts, Jered bought a wonderful Christmas sweater that he wore for the rest of the weekend.

I bought some fabulous new running shoes. Motivation? We'll see.


I wish I had been able to wear these while I was at the mall because I did not have suitable walking shoes. While walking, Jered and I purposefully stayed a few feet behind Iggy to watch the reactions to him. He is extremely tall, and people have no shame when it comes to staring. Hahaha.

Well, shopping makes everyone hungry, so of course there is more food to this story. Jered suggested Rainforest Cafe. Brilliant. I felt like I was on vacation. The atmosphere is amazing, as was the food. We didn't try anything crazy, but it was lovely anyway.
















Notice the sunburns? Those are from the baseball game.


We watched most of the game, ate gummy worms, Jered shared his thoughts on dandelions, he saw his first live homerun, and we went back and forth from being cold and hot the whole time. At least we got some sun to show for it.

We met up with Bam and Myriam later that night. I was glad Bam and Iggy were still friends. Curious? Alas, that story is not mine to tell. You'll have to ask one of them...

Myriam and I had a good laugh when Iggy tried to explain the longest Lithuanian word to us. Ahem, let me see if I can remember... "It's like when you're walking home and you see a rabbit cabbage..." I don't know if that's all of it, but it had something to do with that. Like I said... he keeps us laughing.

For example: Once, Jered and I were watching someone try to parallel park this really tiny car. They took forever. We were both laughing and laughed even harder when Iggy was the one that stepped out of the car.

That was last year, but this weekend also brought driving-related laughs. Jered taught me how to drive stick shift. They were probably more nervous laughs than anything. I was terrified, and he was patient. He's a good teacher, but I don't think I'll be driving us around in the Honda anytime soon.



















This may have led to our mutual daydreaming that teleporting, or apparating, was possible.

While that dream will probably never happen, another dream was remembered when Jered saw a German Shepherd puppy at the mall. He was in love- I am positive that someday we will have one.

Well my friends, I think it's quite an accomplishment if you've made it this far. I was a little sans focus this time. (Molly, I meant to accept your challenge to use that word a looong time ago, but I just now got to it!) Maybe next time, my thoughts will be a little more organized.

I suppose, if nothing else stands out in this hodge podge of notes, let this: this weekend I was one happy camper. Laughter, love, and contentment were abounding, and I'm already anxiously awaiting the next occasion.