The Good Ol' Days

Friday night, Ryan and I set up one of his best friends since junior high, Lance, with my college roommate, Rachel, (who also happens to be one of my best friends). Word to the wise: Unless you want someone to get to know you REALLY well on the first date, don't double with your college roommate! This is especially true if you have some great memories from that part of your life. I say this because Rachel and I sat and laughed completely through our entire meal remembering the crazy and fun things that happened during college.

For example, there was the time that Rachel had 2 guys, Brian and Rich, vying for her attention. I remember we went on a double date with both guys to SLC--and we have a picture where both guys are trying to lean in toward Rachel. Then, our group of friends went to see Titanic. And, of course, Rich and Brian both wanted to sit next to Rachel. I ended up sitting next to her and another friend sat on the other side. Rich, the more inventive of the guys sat in the seat right in front of Rach, while Brian sat next to me. At the end of the movie, Rich, who couldn't STAND Leonardo DiCaprio, turned around, put his hand on Rachel's knee and said, "Thank you so much for bringing me to see this movie." Rach and I have laughed about that many times! Here we are about 10 years down the road...we have no idea where Brian is and we still see Rich, (along with his cute wife and darling daughters), from time to time.

And, we can't talk about the good ol' days without remembering Valentine's Day 2008. Rachel and I had no plans, and neither did Rich or his brother, Roger. The four of us were very close friends, (still do things together every few months or so), and so we decided to spend the evening together. We went out for Little Cesar's Pizza and then went back to Rachel's apartment, where we made the boys watch figure skating with us. Earlier in the day, Rachel had made a white cake with red and blue sprinkles in it in honor of the Olympics. We all sat on the floor eating cake straight out of the pan. (Floor sitting and straight from the pan eating negate the calories...) :) It's one of our best Valentine's memories!

While on the subject of Rich, I also have to mention that he used to paint our toenails for us. Every Thursday night, we watched ER and painted our toenails. Rich would sometimes paint his, but more often would use acrylic paints and his artistic talents to grace our toes with artwork. Around the time of the Olympics that year, we had Olympic rings on our big toes and stars, stripes, and other patriotic designs on the remaining toenails. Oh--and Rich gave great ear massages. If I remember correctly, he learned about them on his mission. We have a picture of all of us sprawled out across the couch and chairs, giving each other ear massages.

During our sophomore year, Rachel and I lived in apartments across the hall from each other. Our bedroom windows faced each other and were about 2-3 feet apart. I remember when we came home from dates, we slid our window open as a signal. If the other one was still awake, we'd have our little informational chats across the rooftop. We also used to leave signs for each other in our windows. If there were big tests coming up, or just any random jokes, chances were a sign would appear for a few days...or weeks.

There are so many more things I could write about here, but don't have the time or space to do so. Just for the sake of remembering...here is a list: fresh blue polish meant the Cougars would win; 27's Heaven; Hell Yeah!; two block walks; hot tubbin'; movies at the Larsen's; "You'd better shape up...Doo, doo, doo...'Cause I need a man"; sneaking Great Harvest cookies in to Anastasia with Rich and Rog; Taco Bell and Sugar n' Spice; "Pepsi"; cuddling on the Larsen's couch; Pepe, the little black Audi; late, late nights at Food 4 Less; the Swatch phone; watching the 70's TV together; "watching" movies without a VCR; SATAN!!! (Man, I miss that)...