Life dream realized

As a teacher, I had the privilege of being an education major in college, and I mean that in the most sarcastic sense possible. Sure, we got to do stupid, tedious tasks just to waste time instead of real work like the science majors. Everyone knows nothing can prepare you to teach children and you just need the degree on paper for legal reasons. But what most people don't know is that the majority of education majors are THE WORST.

Chipper, peppy, positive, eager, these people are the types of students that wash their hair for an 8am class, and do extra work on projects when extra credit isn't even an option. They don't laugh at obvious that's what she said moments - yes, I'm too old to have known Michael Scott in college, but  laughing at unintentional sexual references has been around since the dawn of time. Unless you are an education major.

Thank god I met two other girls in my cohort who actually knew sarcasm existed, snickered with me if the teacher said penis, and considered having the textbook open while watching a movie a perfectly adequate form of studying for finals.

Apparently this is the only picture of the three of us from back in the olden days of college when you had to actually use film and get pictures developed, so I'll just repost it every time we all get together.

After college, obviously my only choice was to take them with me in order to survive a career filled with former education majors. Unfortunately, I was only moderately successful. I convinced Nicole to join me in Baltimore in one AIM conversation (remember that?) when she mentioned she didn't know what the hell to do with herself after graduation. But she was only my roommate for a year, and Nikki went to join her boyfriend (now husband) in New York City as soon as we began our adult lives.

We still got together periodically though, and being in the middle, it worked out pretty well for me.

I'm the red dot, Nicole is the beach ball, and Nikki is the sort of starry night or whatever.

They would have to deal with all the horrors of Friday night travel and I would just scrub the bathtub, put some clean towels out, and drink wine while I waited for them. Quite the ideal situation.

But now Nikki has the most adorable 2 year old ever, and a gorgeous brand new house, so we needed to move the party to Queens. We finally found a time that worked, and Saturday morning Nicole and I took the train to NYC. In the past, we've driven to her (for her bachelorette party and to meet her daughter when she was first born) and it was one of the most stressful, horrible things I've ever done.

The train? Glorious, relaxing, fast, easy, and it even had wifi. A dream.

When the three of us began emailing about activities for this weekend, I said I was fine with anything, but I threw out the idea of spending the entire weekend in our sweatpants playing, eating, and telling teacher stories. I was overjoyed when they agreed. Sure, Nikki lives 4 blocks from the train and we could have had a wild weekend out in Manhattan Sex and the City style, but why do that when we could just play in here?

No high heels or makeup required!

Tell me this girl is not the cutest.

For comparison purposes, our weekend visits used to look like this.

Arry and Swan

 

Nikki actually thanked us for playing with her daughter, which confused me, because it seemed like someone thanking me for eating chocolate, or sleeping, or doing anything else that was only for my own selfish enjoyment. On top of that, she helped me make a life dream a reality this weekend.

 

She taught us to crochet!

I made this - and it's even longer now! Next step - get my own needles and learn to make
something that isn't just a long chain.

So many things seemed like they just happened yesterday and I can usually convince myself they weren't that long ago. But when we tried to recreate a picture from the last time the four of us were together, it was pretty obvious that significant time had passed.

Like, nearly 3 years.

 

There's a tradition of butt kissing pictures and I learned something this weekend. It is a lot easier to coerce babies into taking funny pictures, as they don't have the vocal or motor skills to refuse.

So compliant.

Not so compliant.

The weekend was all I hoped for and more, with even more additional bonuses - Nikki drove me to Starbucks so I could continue my streak of a free drink every day in January, and I finally got to see Sharknado. Perfection.

 

Did you meet your college friends in the dorm, in classes, or elsewhere? How much do you get to see them these days? I'm lucky enough to have one (from the dorms) only 30 minutes away, but the rest I only see a few times a year.