I'm buckling down...

Hey all,

I had a revelation today...or should I say Lindsey slapped me into my revelation. We were sitting around talking about our lives, and I realized that over the past few months I hadn't actually talked with my friends once. I was completely out of the loop, and at one point Lindsey said to me "Erin, if any one of us was to fall off of the face of the earth, you would have had no idea, would you?" OUCH. I don't want that to happen with you all. So....I am going to try my darndest to become the most communicative person that I can possibly be...hence the blog entry : )

Maria, I am so excited for your job...with benefits! YAY! I think you will be perfect for it and will change those kids lives in amazing ways. I visited my mom at work today and realized what an impact she has on so many kids lives. She had pictures that kids had given her of themselves plastered all over her walls and thank you notes everywhere. Of course, I think my mom is great, but I think the thing that really helps the kids relate to her is the fact that she just listens to them. She treats them as valuable individuals...I know you will do that and more.

Send us the pictures of your wedding hair when you get a chance!

I am so sorry to hear about your grandpa. I will be praying for you all, especially your mom. I know that she will make the right decision for her as far as where she should be right now. No matter what happens, we well be here for you whenever you need us.

Amy, I'm so excited to hear about your trip. We have seen Vegas from the MJ perspective, and now we will be able to see it from the Amy perspective! I will miss being able to hear all about it in person. I am so used to having everyone right in front of me to talk about things...so I really want you to post everything on here! Drive safely if I don't talk to you before you leave.

Lauren, I'm glad to hear that you like your job...and exposed your vulnerable side to your coworkers on the 3rd day haha. I have been feeling really weird lately. When I left I was devastated but felt fine when I was home. I think it's my defense mechanism to compartmentalize my life. When I'm home, I'm home. When I'm at school, I'm at school. Your blog smashed that really quickly. I am currently sitting here sobbing like the undercover baby that I am. I couldn't agree more with what you said. You all have been just as much as a family to me as my real family. In fact, over the past 4 years, I have probably talked to you all 20 times as much as I talked to my family. Although I am notorious for being difficult to keep in touch with, I honestly really do not want to lose what we all currently have. I love you all.

LC and MJ...I want to hear from you!!!!

Much love,

Erin

The tears start rolling........... (happy & sad)

Hey girlies,

Maria how could you not tell me about your job when I just talked to you on the phone??!! That is SO amazing and extremely exciting. Your job actually reminds me a lot of what I am doing this summer. I will have to make another post to tell you girls all of the details. I think I made the right decision taking it. I want the work I do in my life to mean something, and Maria I think your job will be so rewarding. I am so happy that part of your life has fallen into place as well (the other part being Kev lol). I am also very sorry to hear the news about your grandpa. I agree that you should encourage your mom to go be with him right now. The rest you'll just have to take day by day. I will definitely put him in my prayers. I started to cry after I read yours and Amy's posts.

I cry happy tears for all of the wonderful things happening in all of your lives, and I cry because I miss you girls so much. I'd been doing so well up until today.. this morning at work we were supposed to say how we were feeling about things, and I said that I was glad I had this job to focus positive energy on because all of you girls moved out and it's a really emotional time in my life. As I was telling the group that my roommates moved out I started CRYING. AT WORK. These poor people have known me for three days. Everyone was actually very supportive, but I was still embarrassed of course. I told them that I was the crier of the house, although that hasn't been that true lately. I think I have been feeling numb lately because I've been trying to avoid my true feelings. Until I came to college I had only known life as an only child. I had friends, but my close friends normally changed every year. This is why if you have ever heard me talk to Amy about people from home I have probably said, "oh I used to be really good friends with them." I think until I met Brad and his friends all of those friendships were so shallow. At that time I probably didn't have the capacity to understand true friendship, and maybe that also stems back to being an only child, I'm not sure. Anyways, the point is that Brad led me to Brie who led me to Amy who led me to all of you. Funny how things happen.

As I was talking to my new colleagues today I realized that you girls really have been like family to me. You're all the siblings I've never had. I came home yesterday and felt like an empty nester. It was the most depressing feeling ever. Finally I have found true friendships. I am so happy that some of you have already taken the opportunity to use this blog. I know that it will be difficult to talk to each other all the time so I think this is a great way for us to keep in touch better. I want to keep you all in my lives forever if possible. You have all brought out different parts of my personality and have helped me grow as a person, and have opened my eyes to so many new things. You have challenged my thinking, made me laugh and maybe even made me cry. Right now I am finally bawling like I expected myself to do days, if not weeks ago. I love you all so much and I am so looking forward to the happy occasion of Maria's upcoming wedding. For those of you that are able I definitely think we should get together in August to finish clearing out/cleaning up the house and we can finally have a true sleepover.

XOXOXO,
Laur

First post

Hi all,

I commented on Maria's post and not to take away from Maria's post at all but I did want to say something myself! I just quickly wanted to say that I already miss you all so much. Already I'm realizing how much you guys are intertwined into all the parts of my life. I was reminding myself of Erin yesterday after I left haha... Every song, car, and thing I unpacked from my car was reminding me of you guys and making me cry! Not to be too sappy but I hope you know how much I really love each of you and how grateful I am to you for making the last few years so amazing. I truly believe each of you changed my life in many big but also small and important ways and I am forever thankful for that, too.

But! We have this and many reunions, weddings, showers, and exciting celebrations to look forward to in the future. I have a good feeling that you all will be in my life for a very long time :)

So I am leaving for California on Saturday (at 6am according to me and 4am according to John- we'll see how that works out). I think I will post on here along the way to keep you guys updated on my trip. I know it will be soooooo much fun but also very bittersweet and so I will need my safety net as Maria said, as well.  Does anyone know if we can post pictures on here? If not, I'll post them somewhere else so you can see our trip!

Amy

Life updates

Okay so I am dedicated to the idea of this blog working so I wanted to tell everyone what I've been up to in the two days since I have seen you all.

First, I got my job!  I start Monday with health benefits and everything.  I am such a hypochondriac, my sinus infection is feeling better knowing that I will soon have the ability to go to the doctor again.  The job sounds awesome, sans the emotional disturbed clientele, I pick them up from school (the one's who go to school off campus), get their daily report, talk to them about what went wrong or right during the day, go to recreation with them, make dinner, go to rec again, and then get ready for bed.  I'll give everyone an update on my first few days soon!

I got my hair done for the wedding today.  It's pretty different, but I like it.  It's very old Hollywood.  My hairdresser gave me some shit about waiting 5 months to get married and not trying to grow my hair out, but it was all in good fun, I think, and she did a good job with the material provided.  We took some pictures on my Mom's camera so whenever I can get those from her I'll try and figure out how to post them here.

And I guess here is the bad news, which I feel weird typing out, but I guess if we were at the house this is the type of thing I would say at our weekend morning tv sessions or something.  I think I told some of you that my Grandpa has been receiving hospice care recently, well today he has been diagnosed as having about a month left.  He's had a really bad last couple of days; he hasn't been eating and he's been pretty incoherent.  He will be put on morphine shortly.  

My Mom is obviously devastated, but she keeps saying that she needs to be here for me.  I'd love to have my Mom here, but she's a papa's girl just like me so I know where she needs to be.  I guess I am just wondering how to convince her to go and be with her Mom and sisters and say goodbye to her dad.  Also, and this is the hard part, what do I do if something happens to him right before the wedding?  I guess my concern is less of what I should do but how everything will change, how do you celebrate a wedding when there is a funeral looming overhead?

Alright sorry that my post is so serious, I'll be back to being light hearted soon, just needed some thoughts from my safety-net.

Love you all,

Marazzle Dazzle Early-Richards

UMM! i just want to congratulate everyone on graduating!!!!! ANDDDDD I am so excited to celebrate (by crawling) with you guys tomorrow night! 

LOVE!

MJ

Best Bachelorette Party Ever!!!

What an amazing night last night was.  Thank you so much for going above and beyond AGAIN!  It was the perfect way to celebrate being a free woman.  And in typical 1806 fashion I would like to make a list of all the things I want to remember about this great night, feel free to add anything I forget!

• Flirtinis!
• Chocolate dipped deliciousness and super moist (sorry Amy) cupcakes!
• Amazing homemade t-shirts that look store bought which I will wear long after I am no longer a bride-to-be
• My new exotic houseplant (the living reminder of our night!)
• Sash, crown with veil, flashing button (penis-free thank you!)
• Waiting for the bus, almost missing the bus, riding on the bus for longer that it would have taken to walk, everyone loosing their buzz
• Maria getting rejected from signing a cast
• So many congratulations!  Maria's hands turning black from tallies
• Apparently forcing Erin into her career as a lap dancer (but not a stripper)
• Shimmy Bitch!
• 900 bachelorette parties that all came to the dueling piano bar
• American girl!
• Dancing!
• Everyone buying me beers and rumplementzzzzz and a blowjob, and Amy making sure everyone knew whose turn it was to buy
• Those guys at the bar who had all been married for ten years and they said they wish they had got married sooner
• Bachelorettes with Baccalaureates 
• Flying Pizza
• Me falling asleep even though I said I was going to stay up

I know there is more to remember so everybody please add on!!

Maria

Lots of Lasts

Today I experienced lots of defining ending moments. I had my last class in Fisher ever. I didn't feel any different leaving the building, but my teacher looked back on everything we talked about over the quarter and it was amazing to feel like I actually learned something. It was a really good experience and a good class to end with. I was looking around my class thinking wow the next time I see all of these people will be at our graduation. I feel like on that day anyone that I see and know I will want to hug. So many people have been involved in my life throughout these four years.

I also just transitioned next year's UBWA Alumnae Relations executive. Normally I transition an exec and then I learn about my own new position. This time there is no new position waiting for me. However, there is a new title, "Alumnae." It has a nice ring to it. Talking her through everything made me feel like I had finally gotten it all together. It only took me a year to reorganize everything, but in the end I left feeling pretty good about it.

Now I have to train my successor at the RPAC. Those responsibilities are a little bit longer.. 5 pages longer! I have here for almost three years and I've really come to own my responsibilities here. I feel a little bit possessive of the job, it feels like it's been mine all along. Along with leaving all of you, leaving this job will probably be extremely hard. So many students pass through here that I really wonder if everyone will remember me. This job has been just as much a part of me as 1806. It seems that everyone else is really busy at this time of the quarter so none of them have been here lately. In a way that makes it easier to leave because it's not the same atmosphere that it normally is. I better stop thinking about it because I feel some tears working their way out...

LP