Throwback Thursdays #1

Have you seen on Facebook where people will post an old picture with the hastag "tbt" for Throwback Thursday? Well, I was sitting in the car the other day and had a really random memory pop up from college. And I started thinking about how I have a terrible memory, how college went so fast, and how I wish I had some of those things written down- just the small, every day type memories. And that's when I got the idea for a weekly post called Throwback Thursdays! Each week, my goal is to type up one memory from some point in my past, hopefully include a picture from that general time in my life, and share it with you. At the very least, it's one post a week that won't be baby related, which is a nice focus for me, and I'm sure for you, too! ;) 

So this is the memory that triggered it all for me the other night. I can't remember my exact train of thought that got me there, but it was about my friend Jillian. We went to middle and high school together but never became friends until we both moved to another city for college, which I find kind of ironic. From that point, we were fairly inseparable. We had dorms nearby our first 2 years of college, lived together our last 2 years of college, and then when I was in grad school and she started working, we lived across a main road from each other in different apartments. It was SO convenient to be so close by because we did so much together! We'd get together most weeks for groceries, strolling through Kroger with our little cart, one of us with the bottom section and one with the top. We would go for walks on the river walk which was only about a mile or so from both of our apartments. There were many trips to Target, Starbucks, and Barnes at Noble. At B&N, we'd buy a coffee and sit for hours reading books and magazines. I still tell Steven how much I miss the simplicity of that! And you know what one of my best memories of that time is? This may seem silly, but every other month we would go donate blood together at a nearby blood bank followed by dinner at Which Wich. I probably wouldn't have done it by myself, just for lack of motivation, so having someone to do it with made it fun, plus we looked forward to dinner after. And up until I got pregnant, it encouraged me to continue donating blood once I moved to Raleigh, even though I now go alone with no dinner date. I think what might have got me started thinking about that time of my life is that I was headed to a girls' night on Monday which, while a blast, is just not the same as the friendships I had in college. I know a big part of it is that we all have our families now and our spouses/kids are our main focus, but it brought me back to that time in my life where my friends were my main focus and we could just call each other up at any time to see if the other wanted to hang out or go on a spur of the moment shopping trip or walk. Those days were a lot of fun and went by so fast! And I loved having such a good friend so close by for so many years to make the memories with! 

On our way to get ice cream :) circa 2008.

If you want to see how good of a friend you have, ask her to help you bathe your cat!!! :D