The Great Thing About Friends...
This is probably going to be one of the most heartfelt and awesome LiveJournal entries ever.
Before I get into this, though, I have to ask this question...am I the only person who, when blogging, has to have, like, AIM or any other chat thing turned off and no one can bother me? It just has to be me, the blog screen, and some music. Anyone else need solitary confinement?
Today is my beloved Mariah (Haun, not Carey)'s birthday. She's the big 2-4. She works at this company called Alstom with her mom. Her mom's, like, the president's secretary. For Secretary's Day, he gave her a weekend for two at The Chattanoogan, a big fancy hotel here in Chattanooga. They got to stay as guest of the hotel and everything was free - from their $150 dinner Friday night, to our drinks at their bar Friday night, to the passes to Wine Over Water, to the massages they got today. It conveniently worked out that they came this weekend for Mariah's birthday.
Mariah's former roommates, and my other loves, Audra & Tiffany, wanted to come to Chattanooga for dinner and surprise her. So, Mariah thought she was going out to dinner last night with her mom and "the boys" (me, my roommate Jesse, his fiancée Cynthia, John, and his ex-girlfriend Kerri). We went to our favorite Mexican restaurant - Las Margaritas on Hixson Pike - and I called and reserved us a table on the rooftop patio. The original plan was that we were all going to be there when Mariah & Vicki showed up, but I called and Mariah and Vicki were already there. So, the girls had to stay behind while we were seated and then I acted like I'd forgotten Mariah's birthday card in the car. I went down, got the other girls, and SURPRISE! It was an awesome time, as it is any time "the gang" can get together.
Afterwards, we went out to The Electric Cowboy because Audra and Mariah really wanted to ride the mechanical bull. I've never laughed so much in my life. Since Audra doesn't live in Chattanooga any more, she threw all caution to the wind and was dancing with anything that moved. "The girls" also really liked Cynthia, which I know meant a lot to Jesse and it meant a lot to me because it meant a lot to him, haha, if that makes sense. Cynthia really loved them too and it's great 'cuz they were - and still are - a big part of our lives. We left the Cowboy around 1:15 a.m. Tiffany and Audra drove back to Winchester last night and Mariah and her mom went back to the hotel. I waited until after they'd left the parking lot to cry.
Spending time with them took me back so much. It's the first time we'd all been together in 10 months...since Audra's birthday last November. Over the course of the night, we all reflected on our amazing friendship.
When you think about it, it really was Divine Intervention that we're all together. Let me tell you the story :o)
Let me take you back to August 2000. We were all bright-eyed, bushy tailed freshmen in college. Mariah and Michelle were best friends throughout high school and decided to go to UTC together and requested that housing place them together. For Audra and Tiffany's story, read Mariah and Michelle's, haha. UT housing also saw fit to place me with Jesse and John. All of us were placed in the same dorm as well - Boling Apartments. I had a math class with Mariah and Michelle, so I casually knew them from that class.
Their bedroom windows were directly across the courtyard from us, which meant we could see their bedroom windows from our living room window and front door. One night, John was cooking with the front door open. He looks out the door and sees four heads in a window watching him cook. Jesse came home and John told him what he saw. They took a piece of cardboard and wrote: "Call Us!" and put our dorm line number below it. Thus, the friendship was born.
These girls are the best girls EV-ER! I call them "Robbie's Angels." Michelle has been a dear friend, but has kind of gone her own way. She left UTC after one year and went back home to Knoxville, where she's now shacked up with a man twice her age. But, I digress. We've had so many good times with those girls. We've gone clubbing together; partied in dorm rooms together; celebrated every birthday for the past five years together; and gone on Spring Break together. They've also been mother figures to us boys. One of my best memories of the girls involves a time when Pi Kappa Phi (the fraternity I was in) was still active on campus. We lost a fraternity brother (i.e. he died) and they were so great to us as a group. They made dinner for all of us in their dorm room the next night.
We've been there as one of them got married and they'll be there when the first of us, Jesse, gets married in May. We'll be there for kids, job promotions, anniversaries, and kids.
This kids, is why I encourage those of you who want to go away to college, haha. It's scientifically proven that your college friends are the best friends you'll ever make because you'll naturally gravitate towards people who are more like you.
I couldn't - and wouldn't want to - imagine my life without those girls.
