Sigh, the beauty of friendship....

"When I find myself fading, I close my eyes and realize my friends are my energy."

~Anonymous

I found this quote and it nearly knocked me over, mainly because over the past few weeks, this is exactly what happened.

I have 3 major groups of friends that I've made over the course of my life: hometown/high school, college, and post-college. Each group has played some part in shaping who I am, what I value, and what I believe. I've been lucky enough to have learned how to at least somewhat integrate each group of friends into my present-day life. This wasn't always easy, as I tend to have a little trouble adapting to big changes and cling fiercely to days gone by*, but I like to think that I've learned to accept inevitable changes (i.e. graduating high school and leaving for college) without panicking that everything I once had will be lost. Sure, I lost some friends along the way, mostly because we "outgrew" each other or the effort to keep in touch was too one-sided, but I've been fortunate enough to keep what I consider a good number of friends from each phase in my life.

It's no secret to those who read this that I've been struggling with yet another life transition from post-college to whatever phase comes next (what's this next phase called?? Gulp, real adulthood?) and like the quote says, in a sense I was kind of fading. How great was it for me to realize that in the midst of all of the weekend visits and activities, I'd somehow managed to schedule 3 weekends in a row, each of which were devoted to a different group of friends: my weekend in NYC with the post-college crew, the wedding weekend with the high school crew, and finally, the DE escapade with the college crew (chronicled on H's site. I'm too lazy to type it all). I noticed that after each of these visits, I was slowly coming out of my angst-ridden period of adjustment. One by one, my friends were inadvertently reminding me that #1, I've survived changes like this before, and #2, while we're not all in the same place, we've truly succeeded in maintaining our relationships.

True, I'd rather have all of my friends here living, say, right next door, but since I recognize the improbability of this ever happening, I'm happy and grateful that these people are still a part of my life and the past few weekends have been a perfectly timed reminder of how good I really have it. I still miss you all--that will never change.

On a completely unrelated note--holy crap, I put pictures up! Just an FYI: in case you haven't figured it out, I still keep this somewhat private by using initials instead of names, etc., and I'm a little hesitant to put up pictures, so just let me know if would rather not have your pic posted on this world wide web. If it's any comfort, I think about 5 people read this on a regular basis (and I love all 5 of you for it!)

*Fun fact learned in graduate school: This is actually a major tenet of Joseph Adler's Birth Order Theory for firstborn children. Go figure.

Weekend? What weekend?

"We cannot solve our problems in the same mind set in which we created them."

~Albert Einstein

No, I don't have a problem I'm trying to solve. One of my grad school professors had this up on the board last week and I thought it was a good one. Kind of puts things in perspective about how often problems are actually a result of our own actions, and not always out of our control. Please, ponder at will.....

I am busy. I sent a rambling email to a friend earlier this week about how my schedule is not all that different now then it was at this time last year. Despite the distance from home to my new job, I'm still getting up at the same time, leaving for work around the same time (ok, that's actually a lie. I was ALWAYS late for work last year), and getting home around the same time. Yet for some reason, my perception of my schedule is all out of whack. I feel much more harried, much busier than last year. Hmmm....could it be that 2+ hours of my day is now spent commuting in the car instead of at work? Maybe. In any case, it's interesting to think about.

My other theory is that I do, in fact, currently have a lack of downtime. While I've always managed to have lots of things scheduled on weekends, usually the months are littered with weekends of nothing in between--necessary weekends of nothing thatI use to do just that. Nothing. I somehow managed to jam-pack my Sept. and Oct. weekends. I haven't had a weekend of nothing since mid-August, and the one weekend I did have set aside for it, I was sick and pathetic and constantly coughing and not able to fully enjoying the nothingness (is anyone else hearing the theme song from 'Neverending Story'?). I suppose that could be why I feel so freakin' harried lately. I am looking ahead to two weekends from now, where in my planner I have written, in big, huge, bold letters: NOTHING. Ahhh, the sound of it is so soothing....

Not that I haven't enjoyed the things I've done during these jam-packed weekends. Take this past weekend, for example. 2 days of general mayhem and debauchery in NYC with K & L. God, do I miss those girls. If our exploits were suitable for print, I'd tell you about it. Kidding. I just don't feel like taking the time to go into detail, but suffice it to say we had a grand 'ol time and I can't wait for reunion #2, hopefully with J included, this time.

This weekend a friend from high school is getting married, conveniently in MD, which means I do not have to worry about forking over $$ for travel and a hotel room. That also means that I am playing host to 3 other friends from high school who also do not want to worry about a hotel. I'm ecstatic to do this, but I realized this week that I guess I should actually finish unpacking my apartment, at least to a point where it looks like a home. And I need to clean. Does anyone know how to keep hardwood floors clean without having to mop it every single day? I am not a mop-everyday kind of girl! Anyway, so that will be my task for tonight. And to make sure I have enough towels for everyone. If I can remember where I packed them.....

So, there it is. Very little drama to speak of (yay!) and lots to look forward to. :)