Girls Weekend 2011 Blog #7: The Finale

"Life is short, so let's go live it. Ain't no time for wasting time. Days like these, they go by way too fast. Days like these, you want to make 'em last." ~Jason Aldean, Days Like These


In case you missed any of the prior recap posts, just click here to check out the entire trip from start to finish.


What a weekend. New friends, old friends, wine, great food, karaoke, 13.1 miles, 473 pictures, and memories that I plan to keep forever. I might describe it (like I have in the 6 prior posts....) as perfect.

I love taking trips to catch up with friends. I think that this is probably one of the most important things that I do in my life. Why are these trips so important?

Let me explain: 3 years. A year and a half. 6 months.

Confused?

Research shows that it's most difficult to maintain friendships, meaning that most friendships are lost, between the ages of 25-40. This is the times that people are so busy building careers and marriages and family....and if we are not careful, our friendships fall by the wayside.


The list of numbers you saw above? Those were the length of time that had passed since I had seen Georgia Boy, Gonzaga Friend, and the Oklahoma Girls. That's a lot of time. (And you can add 27.5 for all the time I went without knowing our new friends Swan and Word Up Bro!)

I'm lucky to have so many friends from different parts of my life---childhood, high school, two colleges, law school, summer in San Francisco, adulthood---but becuase we are so spread out, it makes it hard. Sure, we talk on the phone. We email. And we send birthday and Christmas cards. But friendships need some face time if they are going to make it.

I've been given a lot in my life. And I don't deserve any of it. But hands down the blessing I am most thankful for in my life are the people in it. And that's why these trips matter. Well, that and the excuse to drink wine at 10:00 am. :)

Before Girls Weekend 2011, I was worried we would never top Girls Weekend 2008. I'm here to tell you, we blew it out of the water. At this rate, I cannot wait to see what Girls Weekend 2012 has in store!

Signing off from the best trip ever....
Xoxo,

Gossip Girls!

Girls Weekend 2011 Blog #3: Karaoke Stars

"Those who danced were thought to be insane by those who did not hear the music." ~Angela Monet

Quick commercial break.....remember Miss Canada? Well she's hosting a giveaway of Ty Christian Wilson's debut album on her blog.....enter here!! If she's giving it away, you know it's good--she won a freaking Canadian CMA you know!

Okay now back to the trip. When I told people that we were planning to spend one night of our trip at a karaoke bar, lots of people have commented that it seems very random to go to San Francisco and do somethign you can do at your local bowling alley. Well, I blame Georgia Boy for this being so high on my list.

When we were summer associates together, we all went karaoking one night and had so much fun. And Georgia Boy was a rock star at it. So....I knew we had to do this again and it made sense for our mini summer associate reunion to involve karaoke! (Note to self.....wear heels in pictures so you don't look like a midget!)
The night started with dinner at Osha, a great Thai restaurant with the girls and several people who I worked with as a summer associate. It was great to catch up with everyone! (I got no pictures....fail!)

And then after dinner...the real fun started. Enter Silver Cloud karaoke bar. It was sort of a dive in the Marina--nothing fancy, tons of typos in the song list (i.e. Pasty rather than Patsy Cline, Toxie by Brittney Spears instead of Toxic...you get the idea).

And the cast for the evening included:

Georgia Boy and his wife, Superwoman

Gonzaga Friend

Word Up Bro (who as you learned yesterday we met earlier that day..told you he was up for anything!)

And the four of us.

I knew it would be fun, but Oh. My. Double. Gosh. (Totally our new saying thanks to Word Up Bro!) It was just beyond a blast! I'll let the pictures do the talking.

The night started with a Black Eyed Peas duet between College Roomie and Word Up Bro. And they were right....tonight was going to be a good night! Even when the stupid screen screwed up and they didn't know the words....I have to tell you that I as shocked to see College Roomie on stage first. I mean don't get me wrong, obviously I know she's fun...she's my best friend and all! But I love that she, the quiet, calm, reserved one of the group, got right up there and rocked it out.
And then, the saddest part of the evening was that Georgia Boy can't read. He determined there was no Johnny Cash in the song book, which meant he couldn't do his signature song, Folsom Prison Blues. Well, we learned later that they did, in fact, have like 10 Johnny Cash songs in the book, including Folsom Prison. When some other dude sang it, I thought that Georgia Boy might have a heart attack.

Instead, he signed up for The Gambler. Turns out, he didn't know any words but the chorus. He sang a lot about not knowing the words, actually. :) But have no fear, he redeemed himself when he sang the Beach Boy's "California Girls" with Word Up Bro and the place went wild!

Then it was time for the Gossip Girls to do our thing. Song selection? Sweet Caroline. Karaoke classic. We rocked it out. And back at the table, Word Up Bro taught everyone that when we sang the verse "Good times never seemed so good" that they should scream as loud as possible "I don't believe ya, you're making it up!" Apparently it's a European thing?

Next up, Word Up Bro sang a great rendition of some song I don't remember. Here were the girls watching the show. Put a crazy fun dude with a Scottish accent on the stage, and we're mesmerized!

And then, it was time for the Brittney tribute. Superwoman selected Toxie (i.e. Toxic, in properly spelled English) for our song. I can assure you, I knew 5 words of the song. Did I care? No way---we just had a blast up there! Georgia Boy has video....I'm hoping that Superwoman ensures that gets burned.

Then there was the Snoop Dogg incident. We were on stage singing "Mama's Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys" and this random dude comes on stage, joins us, and seriously knows the song better than us. He proceeds to tell College Roomie that Snoop just walked by. She tells me and I, being responsible (and nosey) jump off the stage, chase the dude down, only to learn it was not, in fact, Snoop. Apparently there are lots of liars in San Francisco. Remember that for my upcoming blog about the race...

Anyway, for our final song recap, we have a duet that was planned during the bus trip home from Napa. An emotional tribute, if you will. "Tried to make me to go rehab, I said no, no, no...." Oh yes, they did.

The night ended with lots of crazy events including the worst shots ever (so bad I couldn't even put it in my mouth for fear of getting sick), followed by a make up for the last one being so bad drink from the bartender (much better!), an almost fight with the music guy for playing the wrong song, having to do some major detective work to determine the location of Word Up Bro's hotel, some near inappropriate comments from Georgia Boy in the car about my physical therapy experience and his wife's prior marathons, and stopping in a field because, well, when a girl's gotta go, she's gotta go.You know those nights where everything just works? Everyone has a great time together, no matter how different they are or how well they know each other. And no one worries about how they look or what other people think, they just let loose and do their thing? When you look around and realize how lucky you are to have these people in your life? Those nights when life is....just good. That was karaoke night in San Francisco.

Stay tuned tomorrow for a picnic on the beach!

From the dive karaoke bar in the Marina where we sang our hearts out....

Xoxo,

Gossip Girls!

Meet the Cast Monday #25: Georgia Boy

Today I'm introducing another one of my friends from my summer in San Francisco....Georgia Boy. He grew up....you got it....in Georgia and went to college at UGA (a fact that I thoroughly enjoyed when a certain football game rolled around last year!). You'll hear the rest in his answers below. He was totally the most popular person in our summer class--if there would have been a homecoming king for the summer, Georgia Boy would have been the winner. He's one of those people who is brilliant and super sweet and you are never quite sure what they are going to say next. Trying to keep up with his smartass remarks definately kept me on my toes all summer!

Here he is...Meet Georgia Boy!

How does a boy from Georgia end up in San Francisco?

I visited SF with my dad when I was 14 or so and really liked the area. Then my girlfriend (now wife) moved out here to go to Berkeley for law school. That made my focus my post-graduation job search on the bay area, and when I got a job I liked I made the move.

Tell us how you met your wife. (And be honest....can she bench press more than you?)

Ha! No, but that's about the only physical feat I have her beaten in. She can probably squat more than me (which honestly isn't saying much), and her running pace puts mine to shame. I hope our kids get her genes. {Just so no one thinks Georgia Boy is totally unathletic and kind of a wimp, his wife was an All-American pole vaulter at the University of Georgia.}
We met in a linguistics class our freshman year of college. We were friends from then on but didn't start dating until spring of senior year.

Please introduce everyone to Crouton.

Everyone, meet the fiercest 6 pounder out there. I attached his picture to this email. This is him right after killing a wildebeast.

Tell us about your post-bar trip!

We went to Egypt, Oktoberfest, and Tuscany. Needless to say it was fantastic. It was especially cool to see Egypt before the revolution started. Watching all the changes in the past two months has been fascinating.
The best part was the Tuscan countryside. Great pizza and terrific wine.

What is your favorite part of living in San Francisco?

Hmm. The progressive social and political climate.

What was the best part of being a summer associate in 2008?

We had a nucleus of people with great senses of humor. That made it fun. And those were the glory days of lavish social outings. The trip to the Giants game was great, getting coffee and fro-yo everyday was awesome, and the other social events rocked too. {That Giants game is where I feel like my friendship with Georgia Boy solidified. I won a bet on the way over by knowing more sports related trivia than him (between his wife and me, he really does come off sounding like a wimp in this blog....) and he owed me a hot dog. Dude goes in the first inning to buy it, but ended up hanging out in the beer garden with some other people for literally 2 hours. Then showed up to pay me with a cold hot dog. No sir...he had to go back and get me a new one. This was the scene afterwards.}
If you weren't living in SF, where would you be?

Atlanta with the fam.

What was your most embarassing moment?

In preschool I dropped my glove in the toilet and peed on it. Then stood there and cried until the teacher found me. Whoomp - there it is. {Wow....I just never know what to expect in response to these MTCM questions!}

What is one (or more) item(s) on your bucket list?

A house somewhere quiet in Montana.

Expect to hear more about Georgia Boy in the coming weeks....because he and his wife are meeting up with us one night while we're in San Francisco for some serious karaoke action! Videos to follow?? Maybe so....

Congratulations Friends!!

"Don't aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally." ~David Frost

It's a big weekend for several people in my life! Congratulations!

Bar Results are out and UNM did AWESOME!!

And everyone called our class the slackers....ha!

Georgia Boy and Pole Vaulter are getting married!!

I worked with Georgia Boy last summer in San Francisco and he's one of the most awesome guys I've ever met. It's good that he's getting married on Sept. 5, because he's a UGA grad and fan.....so he'll need a reason to be happy after the Pokes stomp the Bulldogs! His soon-to-be wife is a doll---she pole vaulted at UGA and is now a lawyer in California. She is such a sweetheart and they are like the perfect couple!!

Gonzaga Friend and Dr. J are getting married!

Gonzaga Friend and I also worked together last summer (apparently I missed the memo that every single Paul Hastings summer should get married on September 5.....) in California. She's one of the happiest people in the world and we've decided that our lives are so dramatic, we're writing an opera. We got the idea after seeing our first one last summer. Stay tuned for that. :) She's marrying Dr. J, who I met one weekend on a yacht trip with the firm. He was funny and it's clear he really loves Miss Gonzaga Friend, so he's an A in my book! Although this marriage might kill her dramatic life and ruin the opera.....

Cousin Whiney is having a BIG birthday!

Cousin Whitney is my favorite travel partner! She's turning the big 2-5 this weekend! Hope you have a wonderful birthday!!