Happy birthday, Anne!

Today is my friend Anne's birthday! To celebrate, we had a mini-reunion at dinner last night. It was WONDERFUL! Although I don't see them nearly often enough, I do get to catch up with Cynthia, Amy and Anne (on the right side of the booth) from time to time. But for this occasion, two other friends joined us: Kanette and Dana! We were all UT students in the University Avenue Church's campus ministry around the same time, and it had been AGES since we'd all been together.

(Can you see the size of that chicken fried steak on my plate? Iron Cactus calls it their chicken fried strip steak, and I wouldn't have ordered it, but Amy made me. Well, she recommended it, anyway! It had me at "jalapeno cream gravy.")

Anne, our actress, seemed to like her red carpet birthday card:
We ALL liked the mousse the restaurant provided for our dessert:
And Anne loved her new iPod!
The best part of our dinner, though, was the conversation, which often led to much laughter! We talked through appetizers, we talked through our dinner, we talked through dessert, we talked long after that. Then we moved to the parking lot where--yep!--we talked some more.

It's crazy to think it's been more than 15 years since we were in college together. Some of our memories are so fresh in our minds. (Others? Not so much! We decided those hazy recollections are the events that we can re-invent more to our liking!)

OK, girls. We really can't wait another 15 years to get together. Last night was too much fun! (And y'all still need to help me figure out who that guy is--you know, the one with the pecs.)

After our dinner I spent the night at Anne's place. Max was a gracious host (as was Anne!).

As delightful as the weekend was, the trip home was NOT. The drive usually takes me three hours, but today? Almost five. This is just what you DON'T want to see when you're ready to be home: speedometer at 0, rain on the windshield, nothing but tail lights on the interstate and frontage road.(This was between Temple and Troy. It took me 50 minutes to move three miles. Aargh.)

But you know, it was absolutely worth it! For a chance to get together with these friends whom I love so dearly, I'd do it all again this second!