825 Alive Reunion...among other things...

825 Alive...

...it's the reference to the four gals who lived in the University Park Apartment #825 during my junior and senior year of my undergraduate college career.

With Friday being August 25th (8-25) we decided it was destined for an 825 Alive reunion! We hadn't all gotten together since our Christmas get together last year. We planned to catch a Ranger's baseball game and then all go to see Sarah's new house and spend the night.

It was when we got to the parking lot to begin the trek to the stadium that Erin broke the news of her recent engagement! It of course was a time of extreme celebration for our group! We were SO happy for her--not to mention blown away by the beauty and sparkle of the ring!! You can see pictures of her fiance on her myspace page which is here. OH, and for those of you who are thinking to their your selves the "big question" let me answer it for you...

...they didn't meet online! ;)

OH...I mean the OTHER "big question"....

...they are planning for the wedding to be next summer.

So we spent a good period of time getting the story of how they met, how he asked her parents, how he proposed (which is a CLASSIC story...all I'll say is that she had a side-ponytail and "big bangs" when it happened...THAT's our Erin...we LOVE her!), and how she was careful to not get shaving cream on the ring while teaching...HA! It was somewhere among these stories that I remember leaning over to Jackie Beth and saying, "Well, this is going to make half of 825 Alive married and half not." She laughed and agreed, and I said, "But hey, we can at least say we are single because we are both still doing school...HA!" Once again, she laughed and agreed.

After watching a miserable Ranger's game we were off to see our sole, for the time being, married "roommate" of the groups new house.

I knew she had moved, though I wasn't real sure where too. I was under the impression that it was not too far from where they used to live in North Richland Hills. Wrong. I like Jackie's description the best...

"Well, remember when Sarah used to say she lived in Houston, when she was actually in Alvin. Yes, she lives in the metroplex." ;)

After driving down some winding and dark roads for quite some time, I figured I was about to go around a turn to see a sign that said, "Abilene 10 miles," but I didn't. We eventually made it to apparently Haslet, Texas, which I had never heard of till now. But yes, it IS still part of the metroplex!

No, really, it wasn't that bad to get out there. It just seemed longer and out in the middle of no where because it was night time when we went out there. Coming home the next morning was different. Not bad.

As for the house. Really cute! I have to say, it seems like a great starter house for a couple! Being the daughter of a carpenter (and we ain't talking Jesus here), I can have a lot of appreciation for a house's layout. This house was laid out nicely. I must say, the master bedroom door going off the living room is different, but not bad. I think that is something I could find to be nice, but like I said, it just seemed unusual. But I loved the openness of the kitchen/dining/living areas. Very nice! Gotta say, nice place Sarah and Brock!

What a good time it was for us to all be together again. It is when I get back together with these girls that I am so easily reminded that friends truly ARE like family...

I mean, I spent two years of my life living in a "house" with these ladies. That IS like being a family. You become so comfortable around one another when you do something like that. You find yourself not even considering impressing one another, or looking "cute," or caring what the others think because you're like a family and you realize whether you woke up that morning looking like total crap, they are only gonna laugh WITH YOU about your hair and then you'll forget it over your bowls of cheerios together while you watch some totally USELESS show on TLC. That's what family friends are for!

So 825 Alive Reunion was a success!

Erin informed us she was engaged.

Sarah showed us her new house.

And Jackie Beth informed me that she does not have a myspace page either!

Such great things. I must say, if you are wanting to do something with me next August 25th, I have to inform you, I've already got plans...

...825 Alive Reunion II. =)

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[This is where I need to cover the "among other things" part of this post. This part will make some connections to points that presented earlier in the post. The random colored words are where the connections are coming from.]

Myspace--
I do not have a myspace. I am not going to go into WHY I don't have one on this post, but what I am going to talk about is the fact that I really rarely go look at people's myspace pages. With that being the case, I will say that even though just about EVERYONE I know HAS a myspace page, I only have 4 people's pages bookmarked on my computer. Each of these 4 are bookmarked for a specific reason, and if you think it is probably your page that I have bookmarked, you're probably wrong. HA! Whatever the case, I want to share ONE of the pages I have bookmarked and she knows I have her bookmarked because I told her when I did it and why I did it. This page is my buddy Ellison's myspace.

Low and behold, I knew it was a dark night the night that she IMed me to tell me she was "giving in" (funny how everyone seems to "give in" to that myspace business. What a great backer for your company--"People 'give in' to our business!"...anyways...). I bookmarked her site partly to see how quickly she became addicted (a sick research-oriented side of me), as well as to follow how much she gave into the "have as many friends as you possibly can GET" aspect of the "business." Oh and don't even BEGIN to act like you don't have people on your myspace that you don't hardly know, or even don't consider your "friend" in real life because you don't actually LIKE them! HA! Whatever the case, I am bringing up Ellison's myspace page for this reason...

...and that is to give her my award for the BEST music on her myspace site! I have to say, in the time that she has had the site, I think she has only had two songs on it and both have turned into addictions for me at their times. The first was that KT Tunstall's "Black Horse & The Cherry Tree." I know I must have been out of the loop, but I hadn't heard of that song until I listened to it on her site and I was quickly addicted. Fun and catchy song! It is now among my Top 25 Most Played songs on my iPod.

And while I have gotten to the point that that one is less played lately for me, her newest song on her page is my new addiction. Once again, maybe my lack of "paying attention" for some reason I did not know this song either until I listened to it from her page--now I'm addicted. This second song is "The Adventure" by Angels & Airwaves.

With both these songs, now that I have heard them off her site, I have been hearing both of them more and more. That's fun! I must say, good song taste, Ellison!

we are single because--
Why is it that people around my age feel like we have to have an "excuse" for "still" being single? Why did I feel such an impulse to defend JB and my single status immediately like I did in that conversation? Why do women especially feel such a pressure to be getting engaged and married when they are in their 20s?

I guess to give out an award for fighting the pressures of "it's 'bad' to be single" I would give my award to "Jules" for her contribution to the fact that people CAN be in their 20s AND be happy AND be single all at the same time. Her contribution can be seen here.

a house's layout--I can have SOOO much appreciation for a place of residency that is build with a good layout. I can remember one time when I was a young kid, taking my dad's architecture stencils and drawboard and drawing up the floorplan for my "dream house" that I wanted to build myself one day. It was BEAUTIFUL! Two or three floors if I remember correctly. I don't remember a LOT about it, but I DO remember that it had an indoor swimming pool! Maybe my plans were to teach myself to swim SOME day! HA!

Whatever the case, I remember that the pool was on the second floor...HA! So maybe I wasn't the BEST at laying out a house when I was like 10 years old...HA! But today I can truly appreciate a nice floor plan!

Being a person in my mid-twenties, I have SEVERAL friends who live in apartment type residencies. With this being the case, I've surveyed how many different apartment complexes have laid out their living spaces. One plan that I do not care for is the one that has the only bathroom facility off the bedroom of the apartment. Now whoever came up with that floor plan either A) had a social phobia so never had people over to their apartment, or B) they loved people coming through their (apparently ALWAYS kept clean) bedroom.

However, on the other end of the spectrum, out of the different apartments I've seen over the years, the one I for some strange reason fell in LOVE with its layout was, strangely enough, one that I only saw one time, and it's been so long aog, that I honestly don't even remember EXACTLY the layout, but I'll never forget that I LOVED it when I saw it that once.

My award for the BEST laid out apartment goes to JWalk's first apartment in the North Irving area. Honestly, I don't recall what it was about it that I loved, but I just remember that it was a really nice floor plan for a two-bedroom apartment.

does not have a myspace--
I have to go back to the topic of myspace once more, because my new found information that Jackie Beth does NOT have a myspace page was QUITE the delight of my weekend! Explaination...

When that dark night came that Ellison informed me that she had "given in" I had to do another inventory. At that point I knew of one more of my friends that did not have a myspace page. Luckily for me, I was pretty confident with this friend that I would never be alone in the battle against "Tom" the myspace man. [You'll get that last sentence most likely because YOU have a myspace page]. Anyways...I was like, "you know, I'm a strong kid, but it's good to know that there IS someone else out there that does not have a myspace page." So it was okay...I watched Ellison's page change, and "friends" be added, and listened to her songs, and then downloaded her songs...HA!

But then it came: then the darkest night of the year came. It was like tight-rolling your pants going out of style. It was like "Friends" going to all reruns. It was like being left at the alter. It was like being given your final exam and your mind going blank...

...my last friend "gave in" and I didn't know what to do. I kind of starred at the IM message in disbelief and responded with "Wow. I don't know what to say."

Somewhere after a couple more "wows" I just remember saying I had to go and then I "signed off." I didn't know what to do. I was officially "alone."

What did this mean? Well of course it mean that the army of people telling me "you should really make a myspace page" had grown. And the number of people using the excuse of "so-and-so convinced me to do it, so I gave in" grew. And the number of people stalking others online grew. But it also meant I would have to be strong alone.

Luckily it didn't take me long to remind myself of the times when I have been strong in the past, and to remind myself that I made it through those times and that I could make it through this "myspace craze" phase also.

But still I was the only person I knew left who wasn't on myspace...

...until the confession by Jackie Beth some time after 1 AM when we were talking as we tried to fall asleep. It came somewhere between our comments of both LOVING the Taco Bell 7-layer burrito and the thought that we both wondered if we were going to wake up to the next morning having Sarah's dog having passed away. Somewhere in there she informed me that she did not have an myspace page, which I had just always assumed she did have one, as the others of the 825 Alive group do. It was then that I realized that I was not alone anymore! And I thought to myself...

...if JB, the girl that probably knows more people than anyone I know, can resist the pressures of her friends to "giving in" then so can I! HA! Great philosophy, huh!? ;)

So there you have it. My 825 Alive Reunion and the random thoughts that go along with it!