m.f.e.o.

my first semester in college i was cursed with the worst roommate

in the history of the world.  her name was hillary and she did laundry

once the entire time we lived together.  oh, and did i mention that

one night i woke up to her and a complete stranger making her unwashed

sheets even dirtier?  yeah.  that happened.

although i didn't much care for my roomie, i was crazy about the two

girls who shared the bathroom with us.  katie and monika.  mostly katie. 

i don't remember exactly what it was that we first bonded over - probably toilet

 paper or an aversion to hillary's aroma - but it happened and my true college

experience began.  there were four of us: katie, rachel, ashley, and monika. 

we made a mix cd and called it KRAM.  we thought we were geniuses.

obviously we were.  we went to frat parties and house parties, and when there

wasn't a party to go to we just had our own in the dorms.  we even made a habit

of making music videos, which didn't win us many friends during finals week. 

needless to say, we had a very good time together.

one weekend, katie and i were left in the dust while monika was horsing around

(she rode show horses) and ashley went to some sorority soire with our buddy russ,

so we took advantage of two facts: 1) my grandmother lived very close to us,

and 2) 'twas the season for dyeing easter eggs.  we headed out to shirl's house, which

was completely empty, and colored us some eggs.  we stumbled upon my cousin's

also empty band room and decided to do what we did best...make complete fools

of ourselves.  proof:

my cousin and his friends came home to hear us pumping the awesome

jams and busted through the door to embarrass us the second i turned off

the music.  made this moment that much more memorable and hilarious.

anyway, katie and i only got closer - i visited her in seattle for her birthday

the summer after that first semester and we talked on the phone every single day.

we got to be very best friends, and we even moved into an apartment together

off-campus in the fall.  things changed a bit because i met richard and started to

go home a lot on weekends.  she ended up moving back to seattle after school

ended, but we remained super tight. 

long story short: things really changed when i turned into the dog-faced girl

who was bridezilla and blew up at her best friend.  i ruined one of the best

friendships i've ever had, and it didn't take me very long to realize what an

idiot i'd been.  my temporary wedding insanity quickly became the single greatest

regret of my life, and it took nearly four years for us to even start speaking on

a regular basis again.  it was by far the worst break-up i've ever gone through. but

we started texting occasionally, and then writing hilarious emails (which was a staple

back in our college days), we caught up on each others' lives, and had lunch together

when she was in town two summers ago.  things really were getting back to normal,

and i couldn't have been more thrilled.  until she invited me to visit!

richard was happy to send me to seattle for my birthday last month.  it was rachel

and katie's reunion weekend full of adventure:

the first day we hit the duck tour

it was a huge hit, mostly thanks to our fantastic driver!

she was a riot.  clearly.

saw some cool stuff

cheesed it up

and almost wet myself when we sailed past the "sleepless in seattle" house.

its one of my very faves.

katie doesn't watch gray's anymore, but she was nice enough to walk

me by seattle grace hospital...which is actually the local news station.

and of course we took a trip to pike's place.

probably one of the greatest highlights of the weekend was the fabulous

drag show we saw at a bar called julia's.  picture, if you will, the hottest female

musicians being impersonated by drag queens.  now picture me, singing the night

away with them and rolling in the aisles.  it was wonderful.

my favorites were ms. celine dion

and cher.  this was the costume that had me completely amazed.

how does a drag queen get away with ass-less chaps?

i do not know!

we were loving every minute of it!

the following night we went out to dinner with some of her girlfriends.

jamie was my favorite.  then we went back to her place and watched a

scary movie.  ok, it was 'the stepfather' with penn badgely, but it scared

the crap out of us.  we both had horror movie flashbacks.  'house of wax'

with paris hilton is also scary to me.  and not for the obvious reason it should be.

my last day in seattle we went to a little place on the beach and stuffed

our faces with a three-course meal.  because it was cheap.

enjoyable at the time, but we pretty much had to roll ourselves down the

beach afterward.

taking in the view.

and we spotted this little guy on our way back to the car.

some lady told us not to go any closer (about 20 feet before we got to

this point), so we stopped because she said it like she was gonna ground us

if we didn't.  then we realized that we're adults and don't have to listen to

complete strangers just because they sound like our mothers.

we got closer and got this awesome picture.

so there.

we ended the weekend with a celebratory photo shoot, highlighting our

matching name necklaces.  just like carrie's on 'sex and the city'...we've obviously

grown up quite a bit.

i'd love to say it felt like we hadn't skipped a beat, but there were four

rough years in there where we obviously did.  you can't undo the past, which

makes me incredibly grateful to whoever invented forgiving and forgetting.

after a successful reunion weekend, i'm happy to say that rachy and kstew are

together again.  it was inevitable, though, because we were m.f.e.o.

(in the ridiculous case of confusion over the acronym please slap yourself for not

knowing 'sleepless in seattle' by heart like i do)