A Weekend Surrounded by Friends - Old & New

This past weekend was a very busy one for Keith and me. We were only home for short spurts - other than sleeping. It's nice to have lots of things to do, especially when they involve getting together with people. This weekend our lives were FILLED with the joy of old friends and even some new ones!

Friday evening I had to work late so Keith met up with one of his old friends from college. Keith has known Carl and his wife Cindy for about 20 years - they all went to Allegheny College together. They live in Charlottesville also but we don't see them near as often as we would like to. Keith and Carl went out to dinner and then went to an event that was part of the Virginia Festival of the Book. Unfortunately I didn't get to see Carl because I didn't get done with work until 7:30pm but I know that Keith enjoyed catching up with him.

On Saturday, I had to work in the morning (it's Spring Football season and the office is BUSY!!) and Keith did some stuff around the house until I got home around noon. While I was at the office, I got a surprising call on my cell phone from one of my oldest friends - Shane Floyd. The last time I saw Shane was at his wedding in June of 2005. He and his wife were not able to come to our wedding because he was overseas in Iraq. He is a Marine fighter pilot and he is now stationed in Mississippi. The great news is that they are expecting a baby boy in July! He and his wife have started a blog - check it out - Floydster Baby. It was great to hear from him! I am very blessed to have a handful of friends that I have known since I was 6 years old that I still keep in touch with periodically. We don't talk or see each other as often as I would like, but when we do, it's like no time has passed!

On Saturday afternoon we drove to Richmond and did some shopping in the Short Pump area. I was very excited to go to some of my favorite retail places that we don't have here in Charlottesville, especially Kohl's! I was able to get some good buys and also see another friend of mine in the process. Kim and I lived together in Richmond about 7 years ago. She works at Kohl's on the weekends and I was hoping to run into her while I was there. We weren't able to talk very long because she was working, but we were able to catch up a little and it was really good to see her.

While we were in Richmond, we met up with some friends for dinner at one of our favorite Richmond restaurants - Capital Ale. It was so awesome to spend time with Jill, Ashley, Kevin, and Jen (all friends of ours from St. Martin's, our old church in Richmond.) This is another group of people that we have so much fun with but just don't see often enough! Even though I love our life in Charlottesville, I wish it were just a little bit closer to Richmond!

On Sunday, we had the opportunity to make some new friends! We had a great time hanging out with a group of people that Keith works with. A couple that works at the library invited some of us over to their house for chili and cornbread (it was really yummy!!) I had met a few of the people before but there were also some new faces. We talked & laughed a lot and shared stories about our past lives before we had all moved to C'ville. They were all really interesting people and I hope that we get to hang out with them again. Keith and I don't have a huge group of friends here like we did in Richmond, so it's always nice to get to know more people.