When I first started at my current job, there was one thing that I was particularly excited about: VACATION DAYS. The idea that once I worked long enough the company would PAY me to take a day off and travel to exotic locations was the cherry on top.
Of course, I didn't consider the fact that being paid for vacation days didn't necessarily mean I could afford to travel to these exotic locales. So instead my vacation days have sat unused - or even worse, used for doctors appointments.
This past weekend I finally took the plunge and took an elaborate, exciting and thrilling 4-day vacation - to Los Angeles. That's right - I took a vacation at home. Before you roll your eyes at the term "staycation" however, let me explain. I turned my vacation response on. My cell phone off. My computer stayed at my desk. Heck - I didn't even get on Facebook!
The Best flew down from Nor Cal, The Fashionista drove up from Orange County and we had a full fledged girls weekend. This WAS the kind of weekend we had dreamed about in college. We drank Bitch Wine and ate Tarts until 2 am, laid out on the beach all day, and ate at this hole-in-the-wall Hollywood spot called Miceli's where our waiter was an actor who sang "Falling in Love with You" to us gals.
On Saturday we spent bucket loads of money as we shopped literally until we dropped, and then attempted to make fruity girly drinks from sorbet and rum picked up spontaneously from Trader Joes. Sunday was a hike through Griffith Park’s “Old Zoo” and a fireworks show in the park, before we all crashed on Monday morning.
It was the perfect weekend, something that I badly needed to rejuvenate my soul and brighten my outlook on life. I think my roommate, The Actress, said it best when she mentioned that she'd never heard me laugh like that in the year we've been living together!
There is nothing that can replace good, quality time with girlfriends who intimately love and know you. There's no embarrassment, no explaining needed - just girls who know you and accept you for all your quirky qualities.
It’s been a year since I’ve moved to LA, and slowly I’ve found my way around this city and made quite a few friends in the process. But no matter how exciting the city, after a while the hum drum of life gets you down and you need something special to pick you up.
That’s where I learned the benefit of having your best friends live miles apart. There is no room to take friendships for granted, there’s no assuming that they’ll always be around for drinks or a movie. They don’t become a part of the hum drum of life.
Instead, they’re the special, amazing, miraculous thing that picks you up and brightens your outlook on life again. That turns your old hum drum of a city into an exciting staycation worth more than any Caribbean cruise. Suddenly, the distance doesn’t seem half that bad.
Showing posts with label friends. Show all posts
Showing posts with label friends. Show all posts
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Back to Normal
The past couple of weeks I’ve been in a huge funk - to use the most simplistic term possible. Achy, tired, unmotivated I was jumping back into hermit mode where I thought a marathon of Gilmore Girls for the 3rd night in a row was the definition of a good time. Finally things have gotten sorted out, and for the first week in a while I feel like life is back to what normal should be.
This weekend I managed to skip out of the office a little early to make the drive down to San Marcos to see a couple of dear friends. Mr. A and I were in honors classes together in college and when he introduced me to Mrs. A (then Ms. C of course) we were insta-friends. Now they’re married and live a total of 2 and a half hours away from me, which I deem completely unfair. They’re expecting their first baby in just a couple months and I can’t wait to have a little niece or nephew to play with!! (I was very tempted to nickname them “Mama Bear” and “Papa Bear” in this entry as they’re the first of my friends to be married. But looks like practicality won out.)
Anyways, I spent Friday evening with them in their brand new house and Mama Bear (okay okay - I like it better) and I went shopping at Target for over two hours. You know that you’re the best of friends when shopping at Target is an adventure. The rest of the weekend flowed with coffee and conversation, and I remembered what it was like to have my close friends nearby. When everyone scattered after graduation it was hard to think of how our friendships would survive being such long distances apart, so I love having friends who pick up after months away like nothing ever happened.
Sunday was a rough day for me on the “getting back to normal” track, but Monday brought with it another long lost friend moment. Mrs. H (there I go again with the uncreativeness) drove up the 405 for some quality chinese take out and movie date. We gabbed too much to remember anything of the first half of Whip It but the second half has us totally pumped to find a roller derby in LA. We’re already brainstorming our derby names, and plotting ways to trick The Boy and her husband on a double date to the derby.
The rest of this week has seemed to speed by - fully bringing me up to speed and back to normal. I went down to my Alma Mater for the day to work on the Conference that I volunteer for every year, and got myself some yummy Chick Fil A while I was at it. Now The Boy is up North for a few nights before we head out on our vacation tomorrow - so EXCITED for my long weekend! See you next week!
This weekend I managed to skip out of the office a little early to make the drive down to San Marcos to see a couple of dear friends. Mr. A and I were in honors classes together in college and when he introduced me to Mrs. A (then Ms. C of course) we were insta-friends. Now they’re married and live a total of 2 and a half hours away from me, which I deem completely unfair. They’re expecting their first baby in just a couple months and I can’t wait to have a little niece or nephew to play with!! (I was very tempted to nickname them “Mama Bear” and “Papa Bear” in this entry as they’re the first of my friends to be married. But looks like practicality won out.)
Anyways, I spent Friday evening with them in their brand new house and Mama Bear (okay okay - I like it better) and I went shopping at Target for over two hours. You know that you’re the best of friends when shopping at Target is an adventure. The rest of the weekend flowed with coffee and conversation, and I remembered what it was like to have my close friends nearby. When everyone scattered after graduation it was hard to think of how our friendships would survive being such long distances apart, so I love having friends who pick up after months away like nothing ever happened.
Sunday was a rough day for me on the “getting back to normal” track, but Monday brought with it another long lost friend moment. Mrs. H (there I go again with the uncreativeness) drove up the 405 for some quality chinese take out and movie date. We gabbed too much to remember anything of the first half of Whip It but the second half has us totally pumped to find a roller derby in LA. We’re already brainstorming our derby names, and plotting ways to trick The Boy and her husband on a double date to the derby.
The rest of this week has seemed to speed by - fully bringing me up to speed and back to normal. I went down to my Alma Mater for the day to work on the Conference that I volunteer for every year, and got myself some yummy Chick Fil A while I was at it. Now The Boy is up North for a few nights before we head out on our vacation tomorrow - so EXCITED for my long weekend! See you next week!
Friday, March 19, 2010
Reunited and It Feels Soo Good!
I had a scary revelation yesterday:
I am slowly inching up on the one-year anniversary of my undergraduate graduation.
That’s scary.
Last weekend I had a chance to escape real life, if only just for a couple days. The Best came down for a spontaneous visit from Nor Cal and for the first time since graduation, the old crew was together again.
The weekend kicked off with grabbing pizza and beer on Friday night and everything fell comfortably into place. (and even though I hate beer, The Director as usual managed to trick me into finishing at least half a glass. - like I said, back to normal.) After a late night finished off at the boys apartment (the latest I’ve had since graduation) we spent a beautiful Saturday with wine and baguettes in the park and it couldn’t have been more perfect.
It’s weekends like these that make me miss college, and at times seriously consider returning. True, I could do without the tests, the homework and the endless all nighters. But the stress and the frustration of being a full time college student are easily looked over after graduation when you have those kind of memories to look back on.
A lot of people can survive this college to real life transition because they never leave their college town. They find an apartment driving distance from campus and still gather together for LOST marathons with the group every week.
Sadly, my friends were all too adventurous - while one or two stayed near campus, most of us scattered just far enough away to make spontaneous drop-bys impossible. I’m excited for and proud of each member of our group - everyone is going for their goals straight out of college. But it does make my nights and weekends pretty lonely. What I would do to have everyone living in the same complex again - to have someone to borrow a cup of flour from (and consequentially have a flour flight with) or to be free enough to have a spontaneous sing-along in the courtyard.
Adult life and a 40-hour work week can get pretty lonely. It’s even more lonely when you’ve moved to a new town. The free time I was so anxious for in college isn’t always worth it when there is no one close to spend that free time with. While yes, I have made new friends and have had some wonderful post-college experiences, there is nothing that can replace my college friends. They’re family.
Monday, January 25, 2010
I Miss My Friends
I had the idyllic college experience.
My life felt like it belonged in one of the college glossies: late night coffee runs with my roommates, study abroad’s to foreign destinations, hours holed up in the film production center - it was a full 4 years of fun and friends who soon became my family.
My friends were my life. I ate breakfast, lunch and dinner with them; we ran errands and bought groceries together. We laughed and made spontaneous runs to Diddy Rieses, and screamed and cried when finals season came around. They became family, even in a way that my family couldn’t (largely because I CHOSE to love this side.) While the classes I took were enriching and the college life exciting, what really made my college experience were the people that became my lifelong friends.
Then I graduated from college.
I moved an hour away, but assumed the F.R.I.E.N.D.S episode would continue. There would be drinks after work, and crashing at each others houses. There’d be parties and road trips - it’d be like college except with more alcohol and less homework.
However, there are no glossies for real life. No one gives you a brochure when you graduate from college, advertising all the wonderful experiences ahead of you. As a TV junkie, I expected to walk right into a F.R.I.E.N.D.S episode , but I hate to tell you - Hollywood lied.
Most nights I come home, make some kind of a mish-mash of dinner alone and watch TV before I go to bed. I’ll call my friends to try and make plans, but they always fall through. Someone had to work late, or needs the weekend to sleep. or it’s raining and the drive is just too far.
On a rare night I’ll have a 3-hour date with The Best - on the phone, eating our dinners 300 miles apart. The Best moved to Northern California at the end of summer, yet I feel like I’ve seen her more often than anyone who stayed down South.
We’ve talked a lot about the best friend problem - both of us displaced from the comfortable home of our college town. We’re grasping tightly to the best friends of our college years, repeating the mantra that we are friends for life. But how do those friendships continue when you’re 5 1/2 hours apart?
It’s time to start making new friends in my new post-college life. I’m lucky to have awesome co-workers that have frequented happy hour with me on more than one occasion. And I’ve joined in with them and their friends as well. But, being me, I’m shy and always worried that I’ll seem like the tag-along.
So what do you think?
What’s the best way to make new friends in a new town? Do F.R.I.E.N.D.S. episode friendships really exist? Is it silly to believe college-type friendships (and midnight coffee runs) can continue into adult life?
My life felt like it belonged in one of the college glossies: late night coffee runs with my roommates, study abroad’s to foreign destinations, hours holed up in the film production center - it was a full 4 years of fun and friends who soon became my family.
My friends were my life. I ate breakfast, lunch and dinner with them; we ran errands and bought groceries together. We laughed and made spontaneous runs to Diddy Rieses, and screamed and cried when finals season came around. They became family, even in a way that my family couldn’t (largely because I CHOSE to love this side.) While the classes I took were enriching and the college life exciting, what really made my college experience were the people that became my lifelong friends.
Then I graduated from college.
I moved an hour away, but assumed the F.R.I.E.N.D.S episode would continue. There would be drinks after work, and crashing at each others houses. There’d be parties and road trips - it’d be like college except with more alcohol and less homework.
However, there are no glossies for real life. No one gives you a brochure when you graduate from college, advertising all the wonderful experiences ahead of you. As a TV junkie, I expected to walk right into a F.R.I.E.N.D.S episode , but I hate to tell you - Hollywood lied.
Most nights I come home, make some kind of a mish-mash of dinner alone and watch TV before I go to bed. I’ll call my friends to try and make plans, but they always fall through. Someone had to work late, or needs the weekend to sleep. or it’s raining and the drive is just too far.
On a rare night I’ll have a 3-hour date with The Best - on the phone, eating our dinners 300 miles apart. The Best moved to Northern California at the end of summer, yet I feel like I’ve seen her more often than anyone who stayed down South.
We’ve talked a lot about the best friend problem - both of us displaced from the comfortable home of our college town. We’re grasping tightly to the best friends of our college years, repeating the mantra that we are friends for life. But how do those friendships continue when you’re 5 1/2 hours apart?
It’s time to start making new friends in my new post-college life. I’m lucky to have awesome co-workers that have frequented happy hour with me on more than one occasion. And I’ve joined in with them and their friends as well. But, being me, I’m shy and always worried that I’ll seem like the tag-along.
So what do you think?
What’s the best way to make new friends in a new town? Do F.R.I.E.N.D.S. episode friendships really exist? Is it silly to believe college-type friendships (and midnight coffee runs) can continue into adult life?
Monday, July 27, 2009
New
This past weekend I finally moved into my new apartment, and that's when it really hit me.
I'm moving to LA.
I've told most of my friends and family back home that I'm "staying" in CA where I "went to school." But really, I'm not. My friends are all within a "comfortable" LA driving distance (read: under 2 hours) but there's no one around to grab dinner with after work, or go out for drinks with on the weekend. I'm completely on my own out here.
I've always been the independent kind of girl who loved the thrill and adventure of picking up and moving somewhere new - I moved to a college a state away where I knew NO ONE for a reason. But I'm starting to realize the older I get that I need the stability of my friends and family close by. I'd love to go out and explore my new city, but only with the comfort of coming home to my best friend or seeing my boyfriend each night for dinner.
This is going to be the kind of growing experience I'll lecture my kid's about when I get older.
Of course, I'm intent on slowly manipulating my friends to get closer and closer. Twixter Two will be moving up North in just a few short weeks and we'll live closer than we have since high school. The next challenge will be to get the boyfriend to move up North after he graduates in December, and then I'll move on to my next victim. ;)
It's time I start making a new life of my own, but it's hard to leave the close-knit college life I spent four years deeply committed to. Sometimes it seems that's all that life is - a constant cycle of making new friends, and leaving the old. I'm ready for the time where friends are friends - regardless of what stage of life we're in.
And as cheesy as it is, an old song from my girl scout days starts ringing through my mind:
"Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other's gold."
I'm moving to LA.
I've told most of my friends and family back home that I'm "staying" in CA where I "went to school." But really, I'm not. My friends are all within a "comfortable" LA driving distance (read: under 2 hours) but there's no one around to grab dinner with after work, or go out for drinks with on the weekend. I'm completely on my own out here.
I've always been the independent kind of girl who loved the thrill and adventure of picking up and moving somewhere new - I moved to a college a state away where I knew NO ONE for a reason. But I'm starting to realize the older I get that I need the stability of my friends and family close by. I'd love to go out and explore my new city, but only with the comfort of coming home to my best friend or seeing my boyfriend each night for dinner.
This is going to be the kind of growing experience I'll lecture my kid's about when I get older.
Of course, I'm intent on slowly manipulating my friends to get closer and closer. Twixter Two will be moving up North in just a few short weeks and we'll live closer than we have since high school. The next challenge will be to get the boyfriend to move up North after he graduates in December, and then I'll move on to my next victim. ;)
It's time I start making a new life of my own, but it's hard to leave the close-knit college life I spent four years deeply committed to. Sometimes it seems that's all that life is - a constant cycle of making new friends, and leaving the old. I'm ready for the time where friends are friends - regardless of what stage of life we're in.
And as cheesy as it is, an old song from my girl scout days starts ringing through my mind:
"Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other's gold."
