good times

Mandy, Anna and Elizabeth in the hotel elevator.

A long overdue reunion with friends from Auburn took place over the weekend. It had been about six years since the four of us, Anna, Elizabeth, Mandy and I, had been together for a "girls weekend" although we were together for Anna's wedding in the spring of 2006. Because of proximity and availability, they have gotten together more than that so I was anxious to take time to get to catch up with each of them.
After driving to Raleigh to meet with Mandy and carpool from there, we arrived in G-ville SC around 11 p.m. Friday. The trip had already been good, including a random narrative from a Dairy Queen vendor. Let's just say her monologue included the phrases "unholy hell" and "she was raising cane, and she had a cane." Nuf said.
We just wanted some blizzards, but anyway.
Stayed up late Friday/early Saturday getting the skinny and making up for lost time. The hotel was lovely and Greenville turned out to be a good meeting spot: shopping, good eats and a BAKERY NEXT TO THE HOTEL.
Saturday started late with a visit to said bakery, where yours truly tore up a butter pecan and apple danish and the best macchiato I'd had in a while.
Onto several malls, where we hit a variety of stores for stuff we really didn't need (save Mandy, who was actually on a mission due to an upcoming transition...) but it was great to just browse and get advice and feedback from each other- about more than clothes.
After a brief respite (oof) we hit downtown and Soby's eatery. The exterior was so exclusive that we walked right past these massive wooden doors and the tee niny sign revealing the place where we had reservations.
Food was good. We ate yummy pimento hushpuppies, salmon, mac-n-cheese-n-lobster, pork t-loin with bacon, and Anna WOULD have more completely enjoyed her fried chicken and potatoes if the little wisp of a waitress hadn't wrenched it away from her grip.
There was A LOT of food left on her large plate when all of the sudden, the waitress slows down as she swoops past, mumbles "done with that" and yanks the dish before anybody can utter a peep. She also took the remaining cheesy-butter bicuits. I swear one of us snapped in a z formation and Liv got the lady to at least bring some more biscuits.
I broke in some new flats on the hoof between the parking and Soby's and we even saw some lovely horse and carriages lit from above by the white lights adorning Main Street's trees.
After a Target run for polish and product, we returned to the hotel for facials and toe-nail recovery and more gab fest.
Sunday morning came fast and we hit our old fave,Crack-er Barrel and then went our (two) separate ways.
It was bittersweet for me because 1) I hadn't seen these ladies in a while and realized somewhere between Warsaw and Raleigh on the way back that we're officially grown-ups now, like it or not.
and
2) it was the first time I had left Susannah at home for more than a night. Of course, thought, Galon did great and they seemed to enjoy their time together. He had threatened to take her to church in her PJ's but I don't think it got to that point.
So all in all, it was good times.

Postscript: The funny thing about the Cracker Barrel is that we got a good group pic taken by a nice lady out front (dorky, yes, but I wanted documentation!:) AND one of my fave pics of us is taken at or near a Cracker Barrel in Opelika back in Aught one (maybe?) I'll try to get the old one digital to post them together for comparison.
Cept for my crazy mom bangs and Liv's Rapunzel locks, I think we really look much unchanged, which is kinda comforting if you ask me.