College Roomies Visit

Last weekend, my 3 college roomies came to visit! Over the last (almost) decade, we’ve had enough bachelorette parties, bridal showers and weddings to keep us visiting each other at least once a year but with all of us married off, starting families and one of us on the West coast it’s been harder to find a time to get-together. When our west coast dwelling Anna said she was coming east for a month this summer, we seized on the chance to play. It was a fun reunion both to see my friends but also to have them back in our college town (which I sometimes forget my now “hometown” is.) We revisited some of our old haunts – Village Tavern and campus, of course – and I took them to some of my new favorites – Camino Bakery, of course. It was also everyone’s first time meeting Bo as well as Britta’s little girl, 5 month old Isla. A weekend wasn’t long enough to catch up with these lovelies, but it will have to tide us over for now and I’m just thankful we did have the opportunity to spend time with each other again.

Meeting Ayanna, the Toddler Version

The funny thing about this day and age of Instagram and Facebook is that you feel really in touch with your friends’ (and sometimes acquaintances’) lives even when you haven’t seen them in months or even years. Every day I see cute pictures of my far away friends’ kids in their day to day life and I feel like I’m getting to watch their kids grow up…

And then you get a chance to have an actual visit and you realize that pictures and hash tags are lovely, but they sure can’t hold a candle to the real thing. The last time I got to see Ayanna she was barely 3 months old. Though I’ve watched her grow up over Instagram and chatted with Akanksha almost daily on our momma tribe group iMessage, I still kind of had to pinch myself to believe that this animated, sprinting, giggling toddler was the same little person I had snuggled with just a year ago. We were so lucky to have Jacob + Akanksha come back to Winston for a visit so we could catch up in person, love on their crazy toddler, …. and mostly importantly, introduce Bo and Ayanna. There was a lot of “muuuuuu-wah’s” from Ayanna and a lot of looks of delighted surprise from Bo. Such a fun weekend catching up with old friends – we only wished it ended with a surprise announcement that they were moving back, but no dice. Back to the Instagram and iMessage catch ups for now.

Feather The Nest Baby Shower

When our friends Anne and Locke told us last fall that they were pregnant, we were so thrilled for them… and for the future playmate that Bo was going to have! It's been so fun having one of my best friends go through all the stages of pregnancy that I feel like I just left behind… and I have to say, Anne is one seriously cute pregnant lady.

It was a joy to throw her baby shower for her this weekend and help her get one step closer to welcoming her little boy. My friend Caroline and I had so much fun planning out the details of her "Feather the Nest" shower.

Anne had so many wonderful friends and family members show up to celebrate baby Glenn. We were even so lucky to be able to have one of our closest friends, Akanksha, who moved away at the end of her husband's residency fly in from St Louis to celebrate with us. Anne is the oldest of four sisters and this little boy will be the first grandbaby on both sides. I think it's safe to say he's going to spoiled and loved to pieces.

Hopefully this was just the start of all that spoiling…

Winos, Babies and Juice

Whenever we come back from a vacation or wave good-bye to visitors for a week, I find myself saying "Oh I am so ready for our normal routine!" 

Spoiler alert: there is never any normal routine. 

Right after we got back from the beach, I headed over to Raleigh for a quick visit. Pam had flown down from Boston to meet Emily's baby, and both she and Jess (up from Charlotte) were there for the weekend. I couldn't have 4 winos be together 2 hours away from me and not go, so I loaded up poor Bowen into his car seat again and we set off. 

Em and I always talk about how Bo and Cameron are going to be such great buds, but right now Bo is much more interested in older sister, Claire (2 yo). He could not take his eyes off her and she loved bringing him toys to hold or books to look at. We had a wonderful time visiting with each other, as always, including a lunch outing to Mellow and then your typical mid-afternoon juice sesh. (Explanation: Jess has become a juice convert and we were all very curious about the process and convinced her to bring her equipment and a crap ton of kale and beets. She obliged.)

Just to keep true to our roots though, we followed up the juice session with some champagne. Bo surprised me by taking a 2-hour nap at Emily's house - something he hasn't done in months at home - so I got some extra quality time with my girls before hitting the road to get home for bedtime. 

A few hours isn't long enough, but it will have to tide me over til the next winocation! 

And one last photo… when I got home that night and texted everyone to tell them I was home. Emily sent me this photo of everyone texting me at the same time. It's nice to know even when you're not there, you can still be there.

Winos + Wino Littles

This weekend, all the winos (and a wino little) came to Winston-Salem with the very best reason for a get together: we just missed each other and wanted to see each other. I’m so thankful for the effort that my college girlfriends have made to continue to see each other in the 8 years (!!) since we’ve graduated – especially as travel grows more complicated as families get bigger and jobs get busier. This was our 3rd trip to see each other this year, which I think is just perfect. (Actually, I think it’s not enough but considering we’re spread out among 3 different states, are coordinating 6 different work/life schedules and have 3 kids among us… I think once a quarter is pretty impressive!)

We pretty much did what we always do when we get together: talked a lot. Laughed a lot. Hugged each other’s babies. Hugged each other. Drank wine. Talked a lot.

Shelby arrived with John (11.5 months) on Thursday night, and we spent Friday catching up with over a long walk with the boys and getting things ready for a surprise baby sprinkle for Emily for baby #2. The rest of the girls arrived Friday early afternoon and we spent the afternoon catching up and showering Em with baby boy gifts. I’m so excited for Bo to have another little friend in just 3 months!

Matt was kind enough to man the baby monitors for us to have a night out with each other, and we had an amazing dinner at Mozelle’s Bistro. I talk that place up so much and I was a little nervous that I had set the bar too high… especially since returning to Winston usually means visiting many of our college staples and this was something new. But of course, Mozelle’s did not disappoint.

 

We kicked off Saturday morning with breakfast at Camino’s… another new-to-them place I had talked up (and fortunately, met expectations as well!) It was super crowded but we managed to find a corner to spread out and let the babies climb (John) or wiggle (Bo) and continue our never-ending chit chat. (Drink and chat, drink and chat… that’s pretty much what we do.) After breakfast, we headed over to campus for the requisite visit and trip to the bookstores. (There’s nothing that makes you feel quite so old and out of touch as walking around your college campus with a baby.) Shelby and I took the boys home for naps while the other girls visited Rose’s for lunch (a must-do every time they return to W-S) and then the rest of the day unwinded at my house, with wine and snacks and dinner and more chatter. Eventually, it was time to conclude the evening as Emily headed back home to Raleigh to her little one, the other girls headed back to their downtown hotel for early morning flights and Shelby and I yawned our way to bed, knowing little babies don’t care how much wine their momma drank the night before.

(I love this picture. Messy room full of happy people. And Matt in the midst of all the winos.)

I say it every time we get together, but it was an absolutely perfect weekend.

Walking in Memphis

Has anyone ever visited Memphis and not had that song stuck in their head all day?

Matt and I went to Memphis this weekend! It was our first weekend away from the kiddo and when we left that morning, I had such mixed emotions. My stomach was churning with sadness to say good-bye, even though I knew he was in great hands with my mom. But I was also really excited to have an entire weekend to hang out with Matt – not to mention the uninterrupted nights of sleep that awaited me for the first time in 10 weeks!

One of my friends from high school, Karl, was getting married this weekend. When he first told me the date, I wasn’t certain we’d be able to go but promised him I’d try. Karl sang at my wedding and has been one of my closest friends for almost half my life, so I really wanted to be there. Bo arriving a few weeks early definitely made it easier and about a month ago Matt and I decided to go for it and buy our plane tickets. We sort of figured the first time away from him was going to be super hard whether he was 10 weeks old or 10 months old. And with my mom enthusiastically agreeing to baby-sit, off we went!

We arrived in Memphis around mid-day on Friday and went off in search of the world famous Rendezvous barbecue. It was delicious (dry-rubbed pork ribs) but as a NC loyalist, if I had to choose one kind of pork BBQ to eat the rest of my life, I’m still choosing pulled with a vinegar sauce.

After lunch we just wandered around the area of our hotel (Union Ave/Beale St) since our room wasn’t ready yet. Once we could check in, we pulled the blinds shut and did what any couple would do being away from their new baby for the first time ever.

Took a three hour nap.

It was glorious and gave us the energy we needed to go out that night. I had made dinner reservations based solely on a location/rating filter on Yelp at a place called Flight Wine Bar. The idea sounded intriguing to me – the whole menu was based on the concept of flights, like flights of wine. So you could have a salad flight – a trio of mini salads – or an appetizer flight, dessert flight and even the entrees were available as flights. (You could also have them regular size, which is why I picked the restaurant because Matt’s not a huge fan of tapas.) We both ended up doing entrée flights – I had the seafood entrée which consisted of a mini lobster thermidor, a scallop with a fried quail egg on top of polenta and a small bowl of shrimp and grits. Matt had a flight with a small bison filet, a piece of halibut and the lobster thermidor. It. Was. Amazing. It was the perfect amount of food – I was full but not uncomfortable (which definitely would have happened had we allowed the waiter to convince us that we needed the dessert flight too). And it was delicious. If you’re ever (walking) in Memphis, go go go.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel to meet my high school bestie Krissy who had just arrived, spent some time catching up with her over a glass (or two) of wine and then headed back out to a bar on Beale St to meet up with the wedding party after their rehearsal. It was like a mini high school reunion, where I got to catch up with so many of my favorites who I rarely get to see. This is one of my last HS friends to get married, so I realized this was the last time I may get to see a lot of these people in one place together save for maybe some reunions. I’ve known Karl since we were 14 and have been close with his whole family throughout the years, so it was awesome to get to see all of them – parents, siblings and even cousins who I’ve met through the years. Karl’s mom describes our friendship like this: “They went to the Valentine’s Dance freshmen year and Meggy wore red shoes.” This is about accurate, but what she doesn’t mention is my footwear made his very-preppy sister a little dubious about my judgment. (In all fairness to Jen, my high school year included many questionable fashion choices. Think skater jeans and baby doll t-shirts. Every bad fashion choice of the mid-90s.) Anyways! We managed to remain close all through high school, college and living in DC post college, and I fell head over heels with his future bride when I first met her a few years ago. There’s nothing like knowing your friends are marrying people who bring out the best in them, and this is definitely one of those cases.

Valentine’s Day, 1997. Witness the hint of red shoes peeking out from the dress. Stellar.

After Karl and I had been friends for about a year, his sister forgave my fashion faux paus and got me a job at the coffee shop she worked at. Making early morning runs to Wegman to buy food for the day at the coffee shop cemented the beginning of our friendship. We worked together at the coffee shop and then on a canal boat together for 3 years, and eventually I followed her to Hopkins for grad school and we were roommates together in DC. She and her husband moved out to Seattle a few years ago, and it pains me that they live so far away – especially now that they have the cutest little boy who I would FINALLY get to meet that weekend.  When Jen and I first saw each other at the bar, there was some hugging and crying and some “omg we’re mommies now!!!!” as part of our reunion. Totally normal.  (Poor, poor, wonderful, patient Matt.)

Karl, Krissy, me & Matt  (I stole many of these photos from lovely Krissy, who actually brought a camera out with her that night.)

My Jennay (and an obnoxiously large beer. Oops)

Me, Janet (Karl’s mom) & Kris

The next day we set out to explore Memphis and took the Main St trolley down to a cute area called South Main District. We saw a crowd standing outside a restaurant and figured it must be good, so we added our names to the wait. It was called the Arcade Restaurant and turned out to be the oldest restaurant in Memphis. It was diner food, nothing spectacular and there were probably better & more interesting options around. Oh well! After our lunch, our plans to explore by foot were foiled by a heavy downpour so we got on the trolley and headed back to our hotel. Matt went off in search of a place to watch Wake football and Krissy & I grabbed some lattes (chai latte 2 pumps pumpkin, of course!) and went back to the hotel to catch up on the last year or so of our life. Our timing was perfect, because we also got back to the hotel in time to meet Jen & Ryan’s little boy, Harlan. I love meeting my friends’ children. It’s like you immediately love this tiny little person, because they are extension of someone else you love. It’s the best. And Harlan (10 months old) was a drooly, smiley, wiggly little charmer.

Then after another brief nap, it was time for the wedding. The wedding was at the Memphis Zoo! Fortunately, even though it was rainy and chilly at the outdoor amphitheater where the ceremony was held, a pashmina and a glass of champagne before heading into the ceremony did the trick.

Staying warm at the ceremony

And the ceremony was absolutely beautiful. I don’t exactly know where we were – I think maybe the amphitheater is used for seal performances? But it was rustic and warm and cozy, despite the rain and chilly night. The ceremony – performed by Karl’s brother-in-law (and Jen’s husband) Ryan, was personal and sweet and touching. And I have never seen the groom happier in his entire life.

The reception was (thankfully) indoors and shared a glass wall with the polar bear exhibit. All weddings should have a polar bear exhibit.

The reception was just a few hours long, and after stuffing ourselves with Memphis-style hor d’ourevers like (more!) barbecue and mini fried green tomato sandwiches and sweet potato bisque, we made our way back to the tram to head home. Except instead of heading home, I got a text from the ceremony officiant himself telling me the location of the after party. So… off we went! Here is where Matt is smarter than I am: when you have the opportunity to sleep for 8+ hours in a hotel room and you are returning home to a small infant, you should take it. Except it was, as I said before, one of the last times I felt like I’d see so many of my high school friends in one place and I wanted to soak up every last moment with them. I did and I can’t say I regret it – even though the alarm going off for our flight was brutal the next morning. But my heart feels happy and full when I think of those extra few hours I spent getting to catch up and talk to old friends. There is just something special about being with the people who have known you for so long. I formed such strong bonds with these people in high school, that even though I haven’t talked to many of them in years and our only connections have been “liking” each other’s lives through Facebook – we picked right back up where we left off. 

So despite the absolute exhaustion I created for myself Sunday for our travel back and missing my little guy like crazy – thank goodness for FaceTime – it was a great weekend away and I’m so very glad we were able to be there.

Although, I have to say I am a little disappointed I did not see the ghost of Elvis on Union Ave.