The Only Thing That Could've Possibly Made It Better Is If We Had Some Theme Music

Last night was spent hangin' with the girls. We'd planned to do something as we were all sitting around a table at the coffee shop late Sunday night after I made it home from my week in Virginia, so we planned to meet at Jenny's house the next night. I knew there'd be some sort of complication with the plans, and as I pulled open the fridge Monday morning and spotted the roast sitting in it, waiting to be put in the oven, I knew the missionaries would be coming over for dinner. Missionaries are great and all, but there's no way to really communicate the awkwardness I always feel around them -- technically, they're boys who are my age, but missionaries aren't people, and they're not supposed to acknowledge that some random BYU co-ed is laughing right across the table from them... so I notice I'm always avoiding eye contact and making short replies. Oh, well. And then during dinner, it came out that my mom wanted to go grocery shopping that evening, which meant she needed "help," which meant me. Now, I like grocery shopping; I don't love it, but it's nice to go down the aisles with a cart and stock up on food. Except I'm so anal and I can't shop with most people, because they're always dithering in the aisle over which brand of stuffing mix they want or something silly like that, and it drives me up a wall. Jennifer and I have a system worked out where we get two separate carts and we meet when we're finished, and I think she rushes just for me, which is so sweet of her, but this is not so much the case with my mom. I asked Mom to divide and conquer with me anyway, and we met up in the bread aisle as she was being a spaz case and pulling loaves of bread in her cart even though that was on my list, so I had to put mine back. And then she double-checked everything I had, going so far as to poke through it. I refrained from screaming. Yes, it bothers me THAT MUCH when people spend unnecessary amounts of time shopping. Finally we got out of there, and my cell phone died, so I used Mom's to call Jenn and tell her I'd be on my way shortly, and she called Meg, and I dashed home and flung groceries all about getting them out of the car and into the kitchen, then plugged my phone in to recharge for a few minutes while I hunted for my bathing suit, couldn't find it, so conceded and grabbed the suit I wear to go wakeboarding, found some shorts, and clomped back down the stairs and out the door, mix CD in hand to blast Fall Out Boy and Nirvana all the way up Braddock Mountain and back down again on the slightly creepy nighttime path to Jenny's house.

Finally arrived, and oh my goodness, I love that house. SO many happy memories. Jenn and I flipped through the channels when I got there, waiting for Megann to arrive, and Aimee was there, looking gorgeous in her soccer shorts and pulled-back hair (I'm being completely serious here; she makes me jealous). There was some tension as the girls were on the phone with their mom... their aunt was in surgery for the second time that day, and we were all praying she'd be okay. When we were all assembled and comfy on the couch, Aimee put "Sense and Sensibility" in, and we laughed over the sheep ("Sheep! Sheeeep! Look, they're running! Ahahahaha!" I do believe is an actual quote from my very lips) and sighed (okay, I sighed, ish) over boys who can quote Shakespeare (Sidenote: There is nothing quite so nice as in saying "Alas" to someone and following it with "poor Yorick" and HAVING HIM CONTINUE with "I knew him, Horatio." NOTHING.) Okay, then Jenny grabbed some marshmallows from somewhere and offered them to us, and I got the idea for making s'mores, so Megann and I searched through the cabinets looking for stuff, couldn't find any graham crackers or suitable chocolate squares, so we all grabbed a Tootsie Pop each and headed to Jenny's car to run to Safeway. Now. No one but these girls will be able to exactly understand what happened next, but I tell you... something happens to us when we get together. No matter how mature and put-together we are, there is some kind of chemical/mechanical/nuclear strong force/whatever reaction that goes on, and we become So Cool, by which I mean giggling (in a tasteful way) blonde children. We were able to find everything, though, and make it out of the store with minimal carnage.

Got back, found some chopsticks in a drawer to skewer our marshmallows and dragged the propane grill out of the garage into the driveway so we could roast the marshmallows. I insist that we did it without any mishap. There were no scarily high flames. There was no scrolling through contact lists on cell phones to find an appropriate boy to call. None of that. We are Smart, Capable Girls, yes we are. And then Megann found the sidewalk chalk and all pretenses were gone.

After gorging ourselves and hoping we knew how to shut everything off correctly and inquiring after Jenny's homeowner's insurance and if it would cover the house mysteriously burning to the ground one night, we of course had to hit the brand new hot tub. One thing about the hot tub: it glows! There's a light under the water, and it changes colors, from green to purple to blue to magenta to scary red. It's so pretty. Another thing about the hot tub: it was frickin' hot. It had been out in the sun all day (that was Jenny's explanation), and when we stepped in, well, we had to convince ourselves to get in inch by inch. Finally we all made it in and were laughing like crazy and playing with the jets. When we got too hot, well, there's a pool right next to the hot tub, so we clambered out and ran down the stairs and jumped in the pool. I discovered I should've been a dolphin; I had way to much fun crouching under water and shooting up out of it. The clouds were beautiful, alto cumulus and wispy cirrus, not too heavy, and letting some stars glimmer through. We went from hot tub to pool to hot tub to pool a couple times, and decided we were just never leaving. I'm going to live under the pool table in the office, and I dunno where Megann's going to live, maybe in the guest bedroom, but it will be glorious. Because no one should be without a hot tub. And no one with a hot tub should be without a pool to cool off in. And none of these toys should be infected with Hepatitis C like in the Villa where I used to live.

So I was hangin' with the girls last night. We have plans to do it all again tonight. If I don't make it back to BYU, I know there are people in the East who'd love to have me and keep me forever, and that's a nice feeling.