Last weekend we made the 1 hour+ trek back to our alma mater in the middle of the beautiful Ohio cornfields. And I don’t mean that sarcastically: I do actually like cornfields. Even though we live pretty close by, this was our first official time at Homecoming since graduating in 2005, though we have been back on campus plenty of times since then. If you just did the math in your head, then you may have already hit upon one of our main reasons for going: our 5-year reunion. It’s hard to believe it’s been that long!
We drove up Friday night after dropping off the dogs with our brave friends, Neil and Kelly. I say brave because as much as I love our border collies, they (and their energy) are not for everyone.
We met up for dinner at Beans ‘n’ Cream, a local coffee shop, with our good friends and fellow classmates, Rae and Lisa. Rae and Lisa were roommates, and, when their husbands couldn’t come, they decided to road trip it together. We all graduated from the same major: Technical and Professional Communication, or just simply TPC. It was so so so good to see them again. We have been fortunate enough to see each other a few times through the intervening years, but with us in Cincinnati and them in D.C. (and Lisa oversees for 3 years), we haven’t seen each other nearly as much as we would like.
Rae, Lisa, Me, and Jeff back in Spring 2005
One of, if not the greatest blessings of my college years were the friendships formed, moulded, and grown. The PR department calls this “friends for life,” and they are right. When you live and work in close quarters with people the way college life throws you together, it creates a special bond. And when Christ is at the center of that bond, it is even stronger. What a gift to be able to pick up with someone right where you left off and still be friends through the different seasons in life.
Inadvertently recreating that old picture 5 years later
After dinner, we headed over to Kevin and Lynn’s (the newlyweds) house. Kevin (aka Rope) has been a wonderful friend going on 10 years now. Again, hard to believe. They graciously opened up their home and sleeper couch to us for the weekend. We just chilled with them at their house for the rest of the night and watched Up! after Rope got back from a couple fire department calls.
Saturday dawned bright and cold, but thankfully rain free. We woke in the morning to find a text from Rope saying to meet him at Beans ‘n’ Cream for breakfast (Lynn had a bad sinus headache). Of course, just after we got there, Rope had another fire department call, but we enjoyed our breakfast anyway. He caught up with us again about five minutes before we all needed to leave for the women’s soccer alumni game. You see, I first met Rope because he is the goalkeeper coach for the men’s and women’s teams.
This was our first year for a women’s alumni game, and it was a lot of fun! It was great to get out on the pitch again with old teammates (and some I never played with) even if most of us were out of soccer shape.
RED HOT alumni (I'm 4th from the right), JV players, and Coach Mac and Rope
We were supposed to play the JV team since the varsity team had a game right after our alumni game, but we ended up scrimmaging each other 8v8 with with some help from the JV girls. Thankfully for our out-of-shape lungs and legs, we also moved the goals in and played from 18 to 18 (yard line, this is, for those of you who don’t speak soccer).
Chattin' in up with Lisa on the field. I don't think she's lost any of her speed!
Muscle shot with Coach Mac - yeah, we're tough
The game was a lot of fun, even if it did make me feel old. My stupid left ankle (the one diagnosed with “chronic ankle instability”) still hurts almost a week later, but my bad knee felt fine. I’m such a bag of injuries. 😛
Also, our camera batteries died or I’d have more pictures.
After the alumni game, Jeff and I went down to an old favorite for lunch: Mom and Dad’s Dairy Bar. It’s just a little ice cream shack on Main Street, but I sure do love me their spicy chicken wrap and potato wedges. They also have great ice cream and penny candy. We got our lunch to go and headed back to the soccer field to watch the women beat up on Point Park, 4-0.
The cold rain started with five minutes to go in the game; we were glad we couldn’t stay for the men’s game. Instead, we went back to Kevin and Lynn’s for me to shower and clean up before meeting a professor friend, Julie (she insists we call her this now, and I’m trying), for coffee at Beans ‘n’ Cream. We had a wonderful, but too short conversation before we had to leave to meet Rae and Lisa for our reunion dinner.
(That’s three times at Beans ‘n’ Cream in the last 24 hours, but who’s counting?)
It was fun to see so many familiar faces at the reunion, including the college president, Dr. Brown. There was less of a program than I expected, and the food was fine, but again, lesser than expected. However, it was another chance to hang out with Rae and Lisa. We stayed around chatting so long that we pretty much shut the place down.
Just us girls
TPC ganstas. Oh yeah. We're hardcore.
That picture just cracks me up. We’re such nerds… hahaha. Love you guys!
After saying goodbye to our friends, we headed back south to pick up the doggies and settle back in at home. It was a fun, full weekend!
We recently took a trip to Half Price Books in search of our next book club title, Killer Angels by Michael Shaara. However, as all bibliophiles know, it’s almost impossible to come out of that store with only one book. I can only imagine the constant temptation working there would be.
In addition to our intended purchase, Jeff bought a nice hardback copy of Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising, and I was thrilled to find the 1950 editions of Winnie the Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner.
Can you believe these lovely old books were only $5 each? Now the binding has seen better days, a previous owner’s name is written inside each cover, and Winnie has a tiny bit of coloring on the inside, but still.
I love that silly old bear.
This summer was a bit more all over the place than normal, I think. My love of stability coupled with my love of cool, temperate weather makes me more than ready for the familiar routines of fall.
Regular church activities are picking up again, fall TV seasons are premiering, kids and teachers are back to school, and everyone’s talking about how well (or not) their fantasy football teams are performing. Ah, it must be September.
We bid a fond farewell to summer with a fun, but low-key Labor Day weekend. For the second year in a row, Jeff and I enjoyed a free day at Coney Island Amusement Park thanks to the frequent donor program with our local blood bank. The weather was perfect and we enjoyed being young at heart. On the actual holiday, we loaded the dogs into the Subaru for a long hike at one of our great local parks, ate an All-American dinner of burgers and corn on the cob cooked on the grill, and shared homemade ice cream and apple pie with friends over board games.
The following weekend was our long-awaited book club for our summer pick, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
Part biography, part scientific discovery, part ethical debate, part history lesson, this book is the fascinating story of Henrietta Lacks (and her family) and what her immortal cell line, HeLa, have meant to science research over the past 60 years. It is a little heavy on the science details for my taste, and I give it 3.5/5 stars.
Whoever picks the book also hosts our discussion. We’ve all tried to do something around the theme of the book, and Kyna did a great job!
HeLa cell cake, "blood" juice, petri dishes of jello, and vials of Nerds
Our wonderful hosts
I agreed to again help teach our Wednesday night girls program at church, Pioneer Girls. In the past I have taught the 5th/6th grade class, but this year the need was for the 3rd/4th grade class. We started up again in mid-September, and—after a few “why did I agree to do this?” moments—it seems to be settling down and going well. I usually prefer to work with 5th-8th grade (I know—I’m crazy), but the girls in my class are very sweet, and I’m looking forward to getting to know them throughout the year.
Flock group also resumed in September. We are again taking turns bringing a meal to share together before the study begins. I’m so glad we’re continuing this shared meal, not only for the convenience, but for the added sense of community and belonging that comes with it. Rather than study directly through a book of the Bible like in years past, this year we are reading and discussing Crazy Love by Francis Chan. So far it is really good! Our church is our family, and our flock group is like our immediate family. We are very blessed to have each of these lovely people in our lives.
My brother and sister-in-law came to visit us this month! This was a big deal to me because we haven’t had many family members visit us here. We are always the ones traveling to see family. They stopped by on their way to Hocking Hills, and we ate lunch together at our local neighborhood burger joint and hung out at our house for the afternoon.
Our last hurrah for the wonderful month of September was a quickie camping trip to nearby Miami Whitewater Forest.
The park is beautiful, and the campground is pretty nice for a close-together, family-type place. While I enjoy tent camping, I also enjoy hot showers that come with having a bathroom and shower house nearby! We only stayed one night, and that ended up being a good thing since we managed to forget our sleeping bags. You’d think we’ve never done this before. Fortunately, we’d brought lots of layers and had two picnic blankets plus our air mattress. This time we wanted both the dogs on the air mattress with us for their body heat. Our friends Ryan and Kyna (and Ivy!) came with us, and they managed to forget their camp chairs. Maybe we’re all not the veteran campers we liked to think we were.
Other happenings in September not already chronicled on the blog include:
- an S’s dinner at Mommer and Popper’s
- game night at Megan’s without Kristin, but with Ian
- downtown Chicago business trip for Jeff
- Natorp’s annual plant outlet sale
- Ian staying with us while waiting for his new apartment to be ready
After a very full week and an even fuller weekend, Jeff and I both needed some chill time today. We ended up sleeping in, skipping church, sipping tea, cozying up with sweaters and blankets, catching up on some TV from last week, and ordering a pizza. It was exactly the relaxing, low-key kind of day we both needed, especially because Jeff left late this afternoon for a two-day business trip and my every muscle and joint (left ankle in particular) are protesting against me today.
Now the house is wonderfully quiet but for the tick of the clock, the rumble of the furnace, and the clack of my keys.
I’m planning on rounding out the evening with popcorn, ice cream, and a movie and two black-and-white bundles of furry warmth cuddled by my side.
Friday was all kinds of crazy, and I never got the chance to finish this at the end of the day. So, it still applies to Friday even though it is now Sunday.
Today I am…
hearing: the rustle of dry leaves and their crunch underneath my feet and doggie paws
seeing: the results of many hours of hard work
feeling: the anticipation of reuniting with many dear friends
smelling: that old familiar scent of decomposing leaves that is just simply autumn
tasting: cinnamon and raisins and butter and tea
Sounds exciting, no? Well, a few weeks ago when Jeff was out of town on business for a few days, I took the opportunity to work on our bedroom closet because I knew this would be one of those projects were it gets worse before it gets better. I should have taken a before picture (just trust me, it was baaaad), but here is the after:
See that back wall in the last picture? You couldn’t even reach it before. I threw out a bunch of stuff, and bought some much needed organization items: shoe rack, wire shelf, wall hooks (all from The Container Store), and wire basket drawers (IKEA). We have an old house, which means our closets are small and we have to make the most of the space we have.
Happiness is a clean, organized closet.
Okay, so it might be a little weird, nerdy, obsessive, you-fill-in-the-appropriate-adjective-here to get excited about closet organization, but that’s who I am, folks. That’s who I am.
