This One's For North Carolina!

Ahhhh, what a weekend! 

The drives were long but the time I spent seeing my friends was way too short (isn't that how it always is though?)

Kurt @Becoming an Ironman and I left Connecticut around 1:45am on Friday. We drove and drove and drove and drove and finally made it to North Carolina around 12:45pm that same day. (Well, I drove the first 5 and a half hours by myself basically as Kurt got to sleep in the passenger seat. Not even my loud and continuous singing of musicals woke him up! But he did eventually arise and took his turn driving.)

 

He's so very focused!

Anyway, we checked into the hotel, unloaded our bags and decided we needed to go for a run to wake ourselves up. (11 hours in a car is a long time to go without physical activity, and car-eography doesn't really count.)

Kurt brought his laptop with him so we were able to pull up a map of how far away the hotel was from my college campus. It wasn't far at all so we opted to run to and around the campus and then back again, taking a quick pit stop so I could pick up our registration packet. The entire run was maybe a mile, and I'm slow so Kurt just walked beside me as I jogged. That made me feel super special. The weather was a nice balmy 78 so I got to wear my shorts sans running capris for the first time, and have now realized that I'm going to need to seriously invest in some Body Glide for the next upcoming months. Yowsers!The run was good, but I forgot that my campus is in the foothills, so there were many ups and downs. Kurt made me run up all the hills for which I was partially thankful- I sometimes need someone to force me to do something so I will stop being a baby about it.

After we got the registration packet, we headed back to the hotel. I showered while Kurt went out for his run. I then headed back to campus, wearing flip flops for the first time since last summer, and reminisced. I even attended the Founder's Day Ceremony and got to catch up with some old friends.

 The Maydell, where the ceremony was held.

I'm not sure what a non-cheesy smile looks like.

After the ceremony, I went and said hello to some professors, then headed back to the hotel to meet up with Kurt. He has family a few miles from my school and they invited him over for dinner. They were very sweet and incredibly funny! I stayed and hung out with them for awhile, spending most of my time running around outside with the coolest 2 year old ever. Thadden has MOUNDS of energy and would simply just run in circles in the backyard, so I ran in circles with him. Then, we would drop to the ground and rest for 10 seconds before getting up and doing it all over again. Best play time EVER!

As I was waving hello to airplanes passing by over head (there's a nearby airport) my college roommate called and said she was close to the hotel (we had gotten in touch with each other beforehand and had decided to split a hotel room) . I said my goodbyes to Kurt's family, made sure he had a hotel key just in case and went to meet Sheep.  

The roomie and I.

It was beyond amazing to see her again! I couldn't believe it had been 4 years since we had last hung out! And she looks beyond glowing with her little baby belly (she's having a boy! WOOHOO!!) We got her all settled and then went out to meet our friend Robin for dinner. Catching up over food and wine is the best way to spend a Friday evening, in my opinion. Before we knew it, it was almost midnight and we had to part ways. Robin is moving to Italy with her family so I was glad to get to say goodbye in person.

The next day was full of fun activities. We took a class reunion photo, then Sheep and I met up with Ashley fr lunch at Mellow Mushroom, which is a deliciously wonderful pizza place (they use a soft pretzel dough that is to die for). After lunch, Sheep went back to the hotel to nap while Kurt, Ashley and I went to meet up with Bobby, my old college theatre director. He's basically the man who taught me everything I know about performing (and he gave me quite an ego about it too haha), so how could I not stop in and see him?! Catching up with Bobby was one my favorite parts of the trip, mainly because I got to spend the whole time laughing hysterically at his stories. We talked about shows we had done, shows he was currently doing, his work in the movies/television in the past, and all kinds of fun things. How I miss that guy! When we got back to the hotel, Kurt went out for a run while I hit the fitness center and wracked up some miles on the treadmill (see? I still managed to get some fitness in on my trip).

Later that night, we headed out to The Divine Llama vineyard (and if you are ever in North Carolina, look that place up because it's fantastic!) for our class dinner. A lot of the women were there with their husbands and children.... so adorable! We had good ole southern bbq and some watermelon for dessert. We went around and shared what we had all been up to in the last 5 years and then just mingled until the sun went down and people started heading home. Kurt, Sheep and I headed to CookOut afterward and got some milkshakes. There are no other milkshakes like CookOut shakes. They are simply the best. They have over 40 different flavors and you can make your own crazy combinations, like peanut butter banana and oreo. Yumm! 

While enjoying our shakes, we were contacted by my (college) little sister, Sarah. She came to visit us for a little at the hotel and caught us up with everything she has been doing. She has a hysterical blog that she started, check it out HERE. Once again, before we wanted it to be, it was almost midnight and we had to get to bed. So, we said our goodbyes and promptly passed out.

Sunday morning brought the farewell brunch and my last look around campus for awhile (though hopefully I will be back way before another 5 years has passed). Kurt and I headed out on the road around 11:45am and drove away. I will admit, I cried. I had almost forgotten how much I had loved my school and all the people that were there with me. Though I didn't really get to see enough of them while I was in town, because I had such limited time, my trip brought back my resolve to move down to North Caroline within the next 2 years. As much as I love my friends and family up here, I feel so much more at home down south. It's hard to explain, but that's just how it is.

On the upside, Team Awesome made some HILARIOUS music videos while driving to and from North Carolina. Kurt is working on smushing them into a montage and once he has them done, we will be sure to share. In the meantime, enjoy the antici...........pation (extra points if you get that reference).