melted smoosh

on a 60 degree day, perfect for eating lunch al fresco! 1) friend reunion. my best friend from childhood (roughly ages 6-12) messaged out of the blue to say she was in town for a graduate school trip and could we possibly meet up? we hadn't seen each other since high school although we've kept each other in the loop about life updates periodically. I quickly secured a babysitter and headed out to meet her for trivia night at a local bar along with her grad school cohort. in a serendipitous turn of events, I had just been talking to my siblings about how I've always wanted to go to trivia night at a bar. what better way to cross it off my bucket list than by combining it with a long overdue friend reunion? now... ... and then! (we were very proud of ourselves for making these newspaper trees) we had a good conversation interspersed with much discussion over the trivia questions (and it was just as much fun as I'd imagined -- questions spanning all types of genres!). afte...

my closest cohort of college friends and I all turned 40 this year, which has prompted us to make the horribly jarring calculation about how long we have actually known each other -- we have now passed the threshold of being friends for more than half of our lives! we typically exchange group gifts for our birthdays, but this year we decided to plan a mini-vacation to celebrate! after much deliberation including literal PowerPoint presentations and polls, we finally narrowed down our itinerary: traveling to an all-inclusive resort in the Bahamas in mid-January over the long Martin Luther King, Jr. Day weekend.  it was wonderful.  we met bright and early at the airport, whisked through security without a hitch (thanks to recent upgrades at the Pittsburgh airport), and settled in for some much-needed friend time. I've enjoyed flying ever since I was a kid, and that continues as an adult. I was quite impressed with the legroom in JetBlue's economy section, plus we were able to co...