Where It All Began

When I graduated High School, I received an art scholarship to a local college. I went there for a year and HATED every minute of it. I decided to change my major and transfer. I transferred to The University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, MS. It was an hour and a half from my house. I didn't know a soul there. My brother suggested that I join a sorority so I could meet people. It wasn't something I had ever considered doing, but I decided that I would. What did I have to lose? So I went through Rush and all of that stuff, and it wasn't really all of that great to me. I ended up joining a sorority.....and I hated it. I moved into the sorority dorm, Panhelenic. It was an 8 story, split level building. 16 floors total, every sorority had a floor.

My first semester I lived on my chapters floor. I hated EVERY second of it. They drove me nuts! They wanted me to keep my door open all of the time, do everything with them, blah blah blah. I had nothing in common with them at all. The second semester I got the chance to move to the 1st floor which was the "community" floor, meaning various girls from various sororities. Our sorority had just gotten some new members, and one of them lived on the community floor. She was a tall, thin re head....a ball of fire. Her name was Allison, and she would turn out to be one of my best friends.

Allison was from Bay Minette, AL. Which was about 30 minutes from me. She hated the sorority as much as I did. We never did anything with them, and got fined all of the time for not doing what we were supposed to do. Everyday we would go back to our dorm room, make some Toaster Strudels and watch Golden Girls...this was our routine! After that first year we moved out of the dorms and into an apartment, I had mine and Allison had hers.

When I wasn't watching Golden Girls...I was at the Kate Hubbard house, also known as the Interior Design Studio. Which would be my second home for the next 4 years.

Our Interior Design class was fairly small. They could only take so many students per class. I think that there were around 25 or so in my class. I spent every day, all day long, every week of four years with these people. It was inevitable that some of us would become life long friends. Today, seven years after graduating from Southern Miss, two of those girls are still me best friends...Katherine and Tara. I still talk to most of my class, but these two are very near and dear to me. Allison had a different major, but through me....we all became very good friends. We hung out at night, on the weekend, went on trips together and shared a lot of good times as well as bad times. We all went to England one summer to study abroad, and it was the best 8 weeks of my life. We had such a blast. We still laugh about things that happened there. Allison was with me when I fell down the Eiffel Tower. After graduation I came back to Mobile, Katherine moved back home to Jackson, Mississippi. Allison lived a few places before settling down in Jackson, Mississippi. She married a guy from there, and that's where they stayed. Tara moved back home to Tupelo, MS. I think about them all the time. I miss them so much. They live around 3+ hours from me, well Tara lives about 5+ hours from me. I hardly ever get to see them, but I do talk to them. They all 3 have children, and it is the craziest thing to me. Sometimes I feel like they are just baby sitting when I am around them....and they are....but permanently! This past weekend I was fortunate enough to get to spend time with Allison and Katherine. Katherine got married. I stayed with Katherine Friday night, and then with Allison Saturday night.

Friday we had a bridal luncheon to go to. Here is a pic of me and Katherine. Is she not the most gorgeous thing (she is on the left)! She is just gorgeous!

Here are a few of the bridesmaids before the wedding. They are all so sweet! The short haired blonde was Katherine's roommate in college. I loved our dresses!

The reception was wonderful. The food was great! There was a potato bar that had mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes...and all the "fixin's" for them.

Here is the beautiful bride and her groom cutting the cake

I took pictures of both of their cakes because I know most of you had never heard of the bride having her cake, and the groom having his own. I guess it is a Southern thing...because everyone here does it. I have never known other wise.

This is the grooms cake and it was beyond words...AMAZING! It was butterfinger flavored. It was sooooo good!

After the wedding, I went to stay the night with Allison. Allison had two children, 4 yrs old, and 18 months old. I had never met her little girl...so I was very excited!

This is Allison and Cara! Look at those cheeks! She was a doll! She just laughed and cut up the entire time I was there. Allison still looks the same and acts the same, well almost acts the same! We are a little older now. She is still Allison though...she is just married with 2 kids. She hasn't changed at all. We have always joked that we had to pay A LOT of money to meet each other. Since we met through our sorority. As I said, she grew up 30 minutes from me, and I used to hangout in Bay Minette all of the time during high school. I had another friend who lived in Bay Minette. All of that time, Allison and I never met...but let our parents shuck out a few thousand dollars for a sorority and whalah...there's Allison! LOL! So we often tell people we paid each other to be our friend! It worked!

I HATED to come home yesterday. I wanted to stay a few more days!

This morning I learned that I don't have to go back to work until Thursday! School are closed due to Tropical Storm Ida, and Wednesday is Veterans Day. It sure would have been nice to know this Sunday morning....because I would still be at Allison's right now!

Everyone has friends, I have a lot of friends. You have friends that you may not see or talk to everyday, but when you do its like you pick up where you left off. You have friends that you can tell ANYTHING to...and they are my friends, and I love and miss them dearly.

Since Tropical Storm Ida is currently making her way up Mobile Bay....it is rainy. A lot of rain! I have been piddling around inside all day. I have my seeds ready to go out for the mail tomorrow. I separated zinnia seeds today...I am sure I have plucked a million petals off of zinnias today! I have two, two gallon bags full of zinnia seeds! Can you believe that! I guess I went a little overboard with dead heading and saving them! So I will have plenty of them to mail out!