Saturday, September 28, 2013

What exactly makes a person your friend?

              The past two weekends I have been visiting with one of my awesome friends. Her name is Lacey and she is from Oregon, but has been in Columbia visiting family with her little boy. We had a great time catching up and having girls time! We enjoyed a girls night downtown for dinner and a few drinks (She's newly 21!). We also caught up and had some lunch today. After lunch I gave her a ride, and got to hangout and visit with her adorable, sweet little boy. We met a little over a year ago, but our friendship feels like we have been friends for a very long time. Sometimes I feel like we have known one another for years, and lived in the same city for forever.





Our friendship is one of those things that makes you wonder what exactly makes a friendship work? We haven't known each other long, and we live on opposite sides of the country yet we talk like we have been friends for years, and have hung out countless times. On the other end of the spectrum I have friends I have known for years, that I see a lot yet it seems like it is a struggle to keep in touch and stay close to one another. I find myself pondering exactly what keeps friends close, and why it is so much easier with some than it is with others. I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, and I think that the friends you have in your life are there for a reason, weather it be to support you in a huge transition in your life, be a constant in your life forever, or just be a lesson only around for a short time. Like any person I would like to believe that my friends I have now will always be my friends, but over they years I have found that it's just not realistic.
              Some friends are friends of convenience, weather you realize it or not your friends with one another because you are both in the same place in life. You may not be exactly the same, but there is something to link the two of you. That link may be school, mutual friends, and or a common interest. As soon as one of your lives change or you move away that friendship fizzles. Neither person is entirely to blame for the deterioration of the friendship, its just that the friendship has ran its course. I had an amazing friend growing up when I was younger, she was literally my best friend. We were inseparable, we did everything! Unfortunately my family moved, before email, facebook, and video chat were around. The distance that was put between us made it all but impossible to stay friends. We were just too young too keep that friendship alive so far apart. I wonder often, if we stayed in the same town, if we would still be best friend or if we would have still drifted apart.
              Other friends are life long friends. Those friendships are just easy. It's hard to explain. The friendship regardless of how new, or seasoned it is just feels comfortable. It's the friendship you know that you can speak freely and it won't rustle feathers or cause an awkwardness in your friendship even if your opinions are different. It's a friendship built on respect, and obviously the enjoyment of one another's company no matter how different each of you are from the other.  These friendships are ones that form quickly, and easily with out a thought. It's those friendships that you find yourself wonder exactly how you guys got so close. Don't question them. They happen for a reason.
              Then I think there are those friends that I think are placed in your life to honestly open your eyes to the world. They seem like a good friendship, but eventually they crumble and teach you a lesson on life, and people in the process. Not everyone has the same needs, opinions and morals and unfortunately sometimes those differences can cause a friendship to crumble. No matter how hardly the friction is avoided, and buffered it is inevitable in this type of friendship. Unfortunately these friendships will most likely end roughly. Thankfully there is a silver lining to the ugliness, most of the time your eyes are opened to a new view. Through the anger, or hurt you are reminded how appreciative you are to the good friends you have, who will be there through it all. It's hard to swallow your loss, but know that it's for the best. A better friendship will most likely grow in the absence of the lost one.
               Basically what I am trying to say is not to expect your friendships to fall apart, but embrace them while they are there. Don't stress the deterioration or downfall of one, if it's meant to be it will mend, if not another friendship will form. Enjoy the positive influences you have in your life, enjoy the laughter and giggles, and be thankful of each friendship for what it is! Always remember everything happens for a reason, and everything will turn back around to a positive outcome.

Friday, September 20, 2013

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

      Cole and I have a pretty regular schedule. I get up with him in the mornings and hitch a ride to campus. Cole drives right by campus to go to work so it just made sense to save money on a parking pass and carpool. So since I ride with him, I just hang around on campus doing homework (or procrastinating) until he gets off. When  we get home, we walk Dusk and feed him. Depending on how hyper he is his walk may be replaced with a long walk or a run. Regardless Dusk is very used to our schedule. Well Wednesday I stayed on campus til pretty late so I could study with a friend for a Steel Design test I had Thursday morning. I had Cole come pick me up around 9pm.
       As soon as I get in the car Cole asks me if I checked my email recently and when I say no he says I need to. Well I get wrapped up in studying and getting my stuff ready for the next day and totally forgot to check my email. Cole asks me again if I have checked it...at this point I feel like it's pretty important to check my email.
       I open my inbox to see I have an email from Cole, which I expected. I open it and all it says is "I think someone is waiting for you. lol" with a picture attached.
    
         My heart melted as soon as I opened that email. First because lets be serious my dog is soooo cute, and he is clearly attached to me. And I to him. But my heart also melted at the fact that Cole took the time out to capture this sweet, vulnerable moment of my baby missing me, and then go even further to share it with me right as it happened. Even if I didn't see it til after I came home. I seriously have the sweetest boys ever in my life. 
           

The Countdown Can Begin...

        Today marks 1 year until mine and Cole's wedding. I can't believe Cole proposed over 6 months ago! It is mind boggling that in 365 days I will be walking down the aisle to stand by my sweetie's side to vow our love for each other. Big countdown moments like this get me so excited and giddy for the big day. It feels like it can't come fast enough, but oh do I know that time is gonna creep up on us so fast!
          This year, and our engagement is going by so quickly and it is exciting and stressful all at once. I am really enjoying being engaged and planning our wedding. Some days it feels like our to-do list is always growing, those days are the days when I really just want to stop thinking about it. And honestly when I am feeling that way, that is exactly what I do.I step back and I remind myself that I should enjoy our engagement, instead of obsessing over planning, and stressing about things that really won't matter in a year. I want our engagement to be blissful and happy and about us, not crazy bridezilla level wedding planning 24/7 that completely forgets the whole point of the engagement. YOUR LOVE FOR EACH OTHER.  More days than most I have been enjoying spending time with my fiance, and frequently happily planning our wedding piece by piece!
             Last night Cole and I got our save the dates in the mail! I am so excited to send them out to everyone...but I have to gather addresses first.

I will end this post with a Flashback photo:
         Christmas of 2009 Cole and I went to Pittsburgh with my Parents to visit my family. It was the first time Cole had been to Pittsburgh. This photo was taken outside of a restaurant we stopped to eat at on the way up there. Cole and I spent a good 20 minutes playing in the snow.



The count down:

  • 1 Year
  • 12 Months
  • 52 Weeks
  • 365 Days

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Weekend ReCap

     This weekend was supposed to be a lonely weekend to myself. Cole was headed out of town in his jeep on a wheeling trip, for a night. I planned to work on homework, study for upcoming tests and try to knock a few wedding to-dos off the ever growing list.
        Friday I sort of took a day for myself and got fully engulfed in wedding day dreaming complete with pintrest, a say yes to the dress marathon and making several possible save the dates on VistaPrint. When Cole came home from work, he packed his stuff up, and quickly put his input in on which save the date he liked. Then loaded up his jeep and was off for the night...or so I thought.
          Cole ended up coming home at 5:30 in the morning, and scared the crap out of me! He had broken his jeep and decided to come home instead of riding with friends the next day. Soooo I ended up being not so productive the rest of the weekend. I finished a homework assignment....but on the plus side Cole and I caught up on Sons of Anarchy. We hadn't seen Season 5 yet, and we needed to catch up so we could watch this season! We literally watched the whole season in a day and a half. We are a tad obsessed with that show.
           I was getting a bit stir crazy cause we were being couch potatoes all weekend so saturday evening I got Cole to come with me and Dusk and took pictures while we went on a stroll around campus. You see I have a DSLR Camera but I am not well versed in the manual shoot setting so I wanted to play around with it cause I am taking a photography class this semester.




















Friday, September 13, 2013

College Gameday Photos

Here are the photos I promised from College GameDay! 
So happy I ran into my "Black Sister"

Our Group after the big WIN!

I am sooo happy we decided to get him season tickets!

They are too damn cute! 

I love my girls! 

Monday, September 2, 2013

College GameDay at Clemson!

          Cole and I had a house full of people staying with us this weekend. Not only was it Labor Day weekend but it was also Clemson's season opening football game. The game was huge...ESPN was here for College GameDay. Clemson played the University of Georgia, which is a rare occurrence. Both Georgia and Clemson are ranked in the top 10 in the BCS poll. The game was Saturday night, which is also a rare occurrence for Clemson home games, most of our games are noon or three o'clock games. So this weekend was huge here!
             Our friends from Columbia all came in on Friday night, we grabbed dinner and goofed off like we always do with our "Columbia" friends. Then we all got up Saturday and got ready to tailgate. We got on campus around noon, went by Bowman Field where College GameDay was being filmed. Cole and I bought some Gameday shirts, which are awesome! We ran into a few friends we hadn't seen in a while and then we headed to our friends tailgate. We spent the day eating, drinking and sweating our asses off. Saturday was sooo hot, thankfully it rained, which cooled it down a lot. Cole and I were lucky enough to have tickets for the game so we went into the game....After we walked all the way back to our house cause I am an idiot and grabbed my license instead of my student ID, and the gate people at the stadium wouldn't let me in without it. Thankfully we booked it home, and got back and into the game by the beginning of the second quarter. I am sooooo glad we decided to go back to the house and get my ID instead of just tailgating with everyone because it was one hell of a game to witness. Clemson beat Georgia 38-35 and the game was a serious nail-biter the whole time!
            Sunday our friends, Cole and I went and ate at our favorite restaurant, SideTracked (if you are ever in or around Clemson you need to go eat at this place, it is seriously the best home-cooked Southern food ever!). Then we bid farewell to our friends as they headed back to Columbia. I spent my Sunday afternoon napping recovering from the day before. 

All in all it was a great weekend and it made me very excited to see where our football team will go this year! Go Tigers :)

**Pictures were taken this weekend but I will have to put them up later once I get them from the people who took them**