meredith j: Puyallup, Portland, Pocatello

While I sat in the backseat of her Volvo, a very beautiful wise woman once said, "I still haven't told my mom we're going to the Katy Perry concert in Las Vegas. She'll lecture me about how I should be saving up to buy a new car. But I'd rater spend my money going places with my friends doing things, making memories-- than driving around in a nicer car."

This is the same lady who made me feel up her Michael Korrs purse so I'd know the true meaning of real leather. She still likes her nice things but she definitely has her priorities in order.

Along the lines of what Malyssa said, I had the greatest three weekends in a row where I was doing just that. Driving 5+ hours in every direction to see friends from high school, friends from college, and my boyfriend's family for social gatherings we all had a common interest in. The gas money was incomparable to the times I spent with these people who remind me of who I was at a different time in my life and gave me guidance with choices I have today.

The irony in all of this is that I did not plan it, because the dates of a concert and wedding were predetermined for me, but yet having these weekends back to back gave me insight.

I am so blessed.

The people I have always strove to surround myself with are phenomenal people who consistently blow me away. We all pick up right where we left off and know each other off of subtleties that bring us closer. Its the sweet epiphanies I had when talking with Tracy about her Trader Joe's beets that I soon remember all her overwhelming knowledge of health and fitness activities and how she shyly covers up how much she knows. Or your little who throws her head back and laughs and you quickly remember how cute her face always has scrunched up when the jokes are super funny. It's the sweet exchange of banter watching them make breakfast for each other and the cute banter when Sophie claims she's never making Annalise food again because apparently she's too demanding. And it's having a deep conversation about God in a bar. A topic I keep private and can only confide in few about. And finding yourself laughing til four in the morning catching up on all the dirt that has been sitting under the rug for the last couple of months. Even the moments that surprise you as your friend changes the radio to a classical station and you begin discussing the true talent of musicians like Beethoven and the complexity of sonata form... an event I would never have imagined occurring since I was always the music geek in high school and he was prominently known as one of the jocks who knew how to throw a good temper tantrum. And the hilarious change of events when Nicole hops in the car and immediately reaches for the radio, "What the hell are you listening to?!" It's also Malyssa yelling at random gives off the street, "Hey can I get a ride?" because she didn't want to walk to eFresh. And then Ian giving her a piggy back ride since her feet did legitimately hurt. Perhaps its a car bar that literally takes me back to our first years in college.

It's all these moments that make me smile until my face hurts, talk until I have no voice, and keep talking pictures until I've annoyed the crap out of them that makes me so incredibly blessed to have these people and memories a part of my life.

PUYALLUP