just like always

I was so excited to see my friend Donnie. We haven't seen each other since May of 2000 when we graduated college. He was like a brother and so dear to me but as life goes sometimes you lose people or lose touch. The crazy thing is, even though it's been so long it was like no time had passed. We laughed and laughed the night away just like always.

I arrived at the hotel to meet him and headed up to his room, I knocked on the door, no response. I knocked louder...odd since I'd just talked to him and he said he was in his room waiting for me. Finally I called him again...he said he was standing outside his room...pretty sure I was in the wrong hotel at that moment in time. I skidaddled out real fast and figured out I was in the Hampton Inn, not the Camwhatever suite's (I forget the name)...so glad no one was in the room I was attempting to get into! yikes! who does that?! me. I know. point, laugh, I can take it.

When we finally met up we headed down town for our adventures in freezing. His mom was along too and she was such a good sport taking pics for us and listening to us jabbber on about old times.
We froze our legs, hands, faces and toes off watching the pretty Holidazzle Parade lights pass us by. I seriously lost all feeling in my fingers and my thighs...that is a strange feeling folks, let me tell you. dang. but the lights were pretty and the music was fun and we did a little dancin' to stay warm so there ya go! Another friend of ours joined us too, I hadn't seem him in ages so it was nice to catch up on his life and times too.
After the parade we joined the massive crowds and headed to the 8th floor of Macy's for the holiday display. It was the Nutcracker this time around. We stood in line far to long. We did a dramatic reading of the program, made faces at the security camera's, discussed world peace, solved everyone's problems, ran out of things to talk about, laughed at nothing (did I mention we stood in line for way to long?) And eventually were rewarded with a nice stroll through a make believe world. It was pretty and worth the wait (I say that but I don't mean it).
The highlight? after we made it through the display we discovered that we could get our picture taken with Santa. So we did. Sat right on his knee and smiled pretty for the camera. He asked me what I wanted for christmas...I have an answer but I decided to keep it to myself ;)
After all that we headed to the down town Target to see the escalator. I know. big woop right? yes! big woop! it's a two floor Target and there is a human escalator and a cart escalator...worth the time folks, trust me! unless you get bored easily in which case you might want to do something more interesting...but I am easily entertained and so is donnie! lol
We dropped his ma off at the hotel and the 3 of us headed out to find somewhere nice to sit and talk and eat and laugh.
oh what a night.
There's just something special about being with people who knew me when I had glasses and big hair. Let's just hope it's not another 7 or 8 yrs before I see these guys again!