Nostalgae Eater

I go home kind of a lot, but for some reason this time was different. I was so filled with nostalgia and love for my hometown, family and friends that I almost couldn't function.

I stopped at the Sonic where we used to hang out in high school and my heart was so full I just about sat there and bawled into my vanilla diet coke. Look, that's the spot where Levi picked up a dirty, disgusting, smushed tater tot out of an oil spot and ate it for a dollar! Ahhh, those were the days.

I spent a few precious hours sitting on the kitchen counter in Carly's parents' house gossiping with Carly and Leah about everyone we went to high school with (except for you, of course! We only say good things when we talk about you!) and it felt like none of us had ever moved away. Aww, remember that time we spent the night and your dad yelled "shut the hell up" and I about peed my pants because I'd never heard an angry Canadian before? That was the best.

I ran into an old friend at Walmart (HEY MINDY! YOU'RE PRETTY!) and it got me thinking about the good ol' days at Hartman Elementary School. Playing Popcorn in the hallway, pep rallies for the Dallas Cowboys, and the blissful ignorance that we were the poor kids.* I wonder if they still serve crispitos...they're probably the reason I was so chubby but as Gluttony is my witness, I'd eat ten of them right now if I could get my hands on them.

I went to the annual crock-pot cookoff with my dad's side of the family and had to wipe away a tear of joy when my cousin James pulled out the drunken gummy bears and offered me one. I'm finally old enough for my cool older cousins to want to talk to me/offer me alcohol-soaked candy! I LOVE THIS FAMILY!

I hung out with Bailey and Levi for the first time in almost two YEARS and, after crying my eyes out while watching their daughter open an early Christmas gift, literally stopped in my tracks to point out to Bailey that we're like...real adults now, which means we're like...friends for real.

I guess what I'm trying to say is: some things will never change/sometimes you can go home again/growing up is weird.

*There were only three elementary schools in Wylie at the time: Hartman, Aiken and Birmingham. I've since learned that Hartman had the poor kids, Birmingham had the rich kids, and Aiken had...frogs? I don't know what Aiken had.