surprises are my favorite!

last weekend, i was able to swing going back home to suprise clarkie and sherbear. it was a weekend of many firsts. my first time to rent a car, which i am now contemplating buying a suzuki reno...haha...my first time to get to lake martin in less than two hours...thanks to the suzuki reno...again, haha...my first time to go to my alma mater's home game as an alum...weird...

arriving at the lake exceeded my expetations. my dad could not stop smiling and my mom kept saying, "i knew it! i knew you were coming home!"

FYI: to make sure my parents would be at home, i told them the night before that i was overnighting a package, and it would arrive at the lake house between 12:00pm and 2:00pm; if they were not to be there, the surprise would more than likely spoil.

the day was filled with a "welcome home" party hut cruise, wakeboarding, smoked plank salmon and even a little surprise for me; umpire was planning on coming to stay the night at the lake house. although it had only been a month since i last saw him, we picked back up to where we left off. basically, him teasing me about flipping burgers and calling me "girl from the windy ciiiiiity," and me responding "whatever to the maxx..."

the next day started off just right. we packed a cooler for all-day tailgating and headed to auburn to watch the tigers play the vols. umpire and i picked up shally clairely (my roommate from auburn), stopped by the tiger package, dropped umpire off by the RV fields, then headed to my favorite pizza joint, mellow mushrom. we enjoyed lunch with clarkie and sherbear, and shally clairey and i stuffed our faces with thick-crust pizza and cold draft beer. nothing better to fill our tummies on gameday!

on our way back to the RV fields, shally clairey and i stopped by the local bookstore because i had to get my face tat and singing button; otherwise, gameday would not be complete. our second stop was visiting my sweet friend abbs at her tailgate. it was wonderful catching up with her, as always.

time was ticking and the game had already started. shally clairey and i walked alllllll (it was pretty far) the way to the stadium and met up with one of my pledge sisters from my super secret sorority. i was able to surprise one more person, which totally made my day. at halftime, shally clairey and i had to make a run to the concession stand to get more coke...duh...you have to be there to understand...haha...in the midst of getting coke and visiting the lady's room, i ran into jordo (college friend)! i was estatic to see her. she is always so much fun.

our time was cut short, since she was rushing back into the game and we were heading out of the game to get my fav mexican food from laredo's. as we walked back to the car, shally clairey made an unexpected pitstop in front of maybe a million people, which she remembered the next day.

that night shally clairey and i met up with some of my fav people. i always have a blast with jaimita, shmandy, lush and twin. we drank, danced and drank some more at 17-16 (a local bar), until lush, twin, shally and i decided skybizzle (a local bar) was calling our names. other than not being able to move inside the bar, i was able to see friends i had not seen in months, especially my favorite friend tallytally-bonbon. FYI: back in college, tallytally-bonbon was my go-to-man for anything and everything fun.

the following morning was very bittersweet. after picking up food with shally clairey and umpire, we headed back to shally clairey's house to satisfy our hunger. as time ticked closer to noon, we all had to get on the road and go our seperate ways. i said my goodbyes to both umpire and shallyclairey, then headed back to the lake house.

sunday and monday were lazy days at the lake house. it was nice to be able to sleep in, catchup with clarkie and sherbear and hang out with my sweet jelly belly (my golden retriever).

time with family and friends is never long enough, but you make the most out of it. now i am back in the windy city. the weather is officially "fall," even though the trees and grass are still a lush green; however, i do not let that fool me. the temperature definitely gives it away.