That was a joke. This weekend was the furthest thing from ratchet, and 100% wonderful. If you don't know what ratchet means, you should probably open a new tab to Urban Dictionary it right about now.
I love Shauna Niequist, the author of Cold Tangerines and Bittersweet, and a quote from her is perfect for this weekend.
“Share your life with the people you love, even if it means saving
up for a ticket and going without a few things for a while to make it
work. There are enough long lonely days of the same old thing, and if
you let enough years pass, and if you let the routine steamroll your
life, you’ll wake up one day, isolated and weary, and wonder what
happened to all those old friends.”
-Shauna Niequist
I don't know a lot of people who get to visit their friends in other states on a pretty regular basis. I'm glad I have wonderful friends in other places, and I'm glad I get to see them. This weekend was full of love and I am so glad we made it happen.
On Thursday afternoon, Mama and Papa J-L and I packed up the car and headed out to Ohio, so I could spend the weekend with work crew friends and my parents could do parent-y things like tour whistle factories in Columbus (yes, they're weird but I love them). We finally rolled through the mean streets of Powell, Ohio pretty late Thursday night, so after Maddie and I took some selfies and she pretended to study, we were off to bed.
I call this the "Maddie Eppley". Classic beauty, right? Our whole Work Crew got to see these beautiful faces on our Facebook group.
Friday I got to go to school with Maddie! When she visited New Trier in September, she and all my other friends didn't even believe it was a high school. I'm sorry that we don't have a marching band and just got cheerleaders last year and look like rich hobos and don't wear colors at New Trier. I really am. :)
I had a great time pretending to be Maddie. Just kidding. I did get some stares and people asking if I was the new girl. My favorite part of the day was when a kid in Maddie's AP Chem class raised his hand in the middle of class, pointed at me, and said "Who is SHE?!" I said I was from Chicago in my Chicago accent ("Chi-kaaaah-go") and all was well.
Friday night after school Maddie, Soph, Halley and I went out to dinner. The four of us had a sleepover one Friday night before school started when I visited the first time, and I was so happy it ended up being all four of us together again.
I love that it almost seems like Halley went on Work Crew with the three of us because she is so great. I love that even though Sophia fell asleep in her dorm and we ended up not being able to go to Young Life leadership, we all went with it and had the best time. I love that we drove around for forever singing to Disney music like Hilary Duff and the Cheetah Girls. I love that none of us like "Bridget Jones' Diary" because we couldn't handle the awkwardness. I love that we went out for a spontaneous late-night Giant Eagle run. Obviously we had to buy the half cake. Who wouldn't?
Saturday afternoon, Maddie and I went down to the OSU campus for the OSU vs. Illinois game. It was so cold. So cold. Thankfully we had enough fun people-watching and cheering for our favorite team that we were able to stick it out for three whole quarters! Then we caved and beelined for the warmth of Burgerworks with Maddie's dad and brother, Alex.
Being this pretty is hard work, as shown in take one.
Sunday morning Maddie and I went to church together, then sadly it was time to head home. But I wasn't about to leave without pictures with my new family. Mama and Papa Epps are seriously wonderful and so is Andrew, Maddie's little brother who was nice enough to pause his video games and take pictures.
And of course... my love Maddie! I Twitter messaged Maddie after seeing that we were on the same Work Crew sometime in March. I was positive that we weren't going to be friends because talking on Twitter before you know someone in real life is awkward. I couldn't have even predicted how close we would be! Maddie is a gem (one of her favorite words!) and I'm so glad we get to be in a long distance friendship. Do those even exist? Well yes. We created them.
So... was your weekend as ratchet as mine?
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