Forget and Not Slow Down

Relient K really does have a song for every life experience.
I don't care what you say, they're lyric geniuses and I have no intention of growing out of them.

New Years Eve.

Even though the conference still had a full day left, I had a tradition to uphold in Tulsa. And, because I am all about traditions and following-through, I came home to the arms of my beautiful best friend.

Now, we thought that no New Years party could top last year, but we were wrong.

Last year, Kira and I kicked off the night in our Forever Lazies, watching Pitch Perfect with champagne in hand. Then, after 45 minutes of desperate texts, heytells, and phone calls from Haley, we finally took pity on her, got off the couch, prettied up, picked her up, and headed over to Caity's.

Meant to be super creepy of us. This is just to give you a visual idea of the magic that is the Forever Lazy

Craig loves us. 

There, pie.

Next stop, our buddy Lauren's for bunko and silly string. Finally, we packed back into Bess (RIP, car) and took the party to my house. We blasted Ke$ha all the way there (making sure Hayhay kept all body parts in the car. Challenge) and howled at the moon in the street after I parked. More Pitch Perfect, some Barbie Sparkle Kingdom, and champagne, then sleep. Great night.

This year, Haley is in China and Caity is married, leaving Kira and I to our own devices.

Our group involved Kira's parents, her aunt and uncle, her brother and his three friends, her, me, and two other girls. And the dog. Can't forget the dog. Petunia hounded me all night. (HA).

I guess there wasn't anything super dynamic "do" wise, but it was, I think, the best New Years ever.

Her family is loud and brash and really loving and wonderful. We danced in the kitchen, laughed, played Uno, yelled (a lot), ate a lot of food, enjoyed contextual beverages, silly stringed one another, tried to watch a movie (asleep before a quarter over. all of us), got perpetually attacked by Petunia the dog, and ended up asleep, piled on the couch together. The next morning, we slept in till past noon and started the year off right with cookies and coffee.

Like I said, simple.

I've never liked parties. I always feel like I'm supposed to be doing or saying something and not doing it right. Not comfortable and more than usually have somewhere specific I'd really rather be.

I think that's why I liked it so much. Yeah, I kinda wished I could still be with my OneThing group (they actually missed me and FaceTimed me at midnight. So sweet), but where I was where exactly where I wanted to be. And Kira was exactly the person I wanted to be with.

Two Christmas breaks ago, I crawled into bed with my mom (yes, at 19) and cried, with just this weird gut feeling that by the next year, everything was going to be different. It was.

By the end of last Christmas break, Caity was engaged (Craig actually joined us for New Years last year). And Kira, too, was engaged by then.

Caity got married this summer. Kira gets married in six months. Haley is in a serious relationship and living in China.

So, this New Years wasn't like it it, necessarily, but in a way, it kinda was. Technically, last year was our final group of singleness and freedom, but I'm digressing from the point.

Things are changing. 




We're like, to that point where people are expecting us to do things like grow up and get married...or a dog. (Ten points, Cubby!). This time next year, Kira will join Caity's wife club. For that matter, so will Haley probably. And me? Who knows where I'll be or what I'll be up to.

But for one night, none of that stuff mattered. We just let ourselves forget about all it all and everything that's staring us in the face, and we were back to being silly teenage best friends. That made it the very best.