That one time AH finally updated the blog, and it was about friends looking at stars and stuff.

Oh, hello four people who clicked this link out of boredom!

I know BSteer and I haven't blogged since like... September... but, um....

Yeah. Sorry. That's not very cool of us.

BUT there's a new post up! In fact, it's this one that you're reading right now. Yay! Exciting!

I'll be honest, the reason I'm posting this particular blog update is because my friend Tim, who is famous at No Longer My Spanish Class Blog (and infamous in the rest of his life) agreed to post some of his high school poetry if I shared some shenanigans over here. So here we go. Let the shenanigan sharing commence!

My lovely roommate, fellow blogger (in theory), and someone's future wife Brittany traveled to her hometown this past weekend to tend to various and sundry wedding details (after which she brought me wedding cake-tasting cupcakes, so she is unquestionably the best). Unfortunately, this means that she wasn't present for the events of the weekend, so this will be a solo E26 resident recap.

So anyway, this weekend some friends and I decided to have a bit of an adventure. My dear friend Laura G., who I met during undergrad, has been working at our alma mater for the past two months completing a physical therapy clinical. She and I have had many a good time over the past few weeks, and I'm quite sad that she's leaving to start her next clinical. Since this was her last weekend in town, we decided to enjoy lots of activities that included drinking wine, watching movies, and generally being silly and girly.

Aww. We're pretty cute, y'all.

Friday evening featured some much needed girl talk over after-work drinks, delicious Italian food, and a viewing of the timeless classic Clueless. Saturday morning featured delicious breakfast, coffee drinking, and a viewing of the always uplifting Hope Floats to celebrate One Saturday Morning*. Saturday afternoon, we knew we needed to keep the fun going. Whilst enjoying a tasty Abita Strawberry Harvest Lager and spinach and artichoke pizza at a local bar, Laura and I discussed our plans for the evening.

Abita Strawberry season is the BEST season

We both have a girl crush on the impeccable, Oscar-winning Jennifer Lawrence, and LG said she'd like to watch Jennifer's recently released horror movie House at the End of the Street. I agreed somewhat reluctantly, because I am an absolute chicken when it comes to horror movies, especially the ones that involve any sort of slashing or stabbing. Give me a ghoul or a ghost any day, but keep your murderers and serial killers to yourselves, thankyouverymuch.

Look at her! She's absolutely adorable.

Oh, and also there's this.

Anyway, I agreed to watch the movie with LG if we could follow the activity with something light, fun, and unrelated to murder to raise the tone of the evening. She glanced out the window of the bar and said, "Hmm... I was going to suggest... but I don't know how clear it will be...." But I was picking up what she was putting down, because I immediately replied, "Star gazing!?" with more than a bit of excitement in my voice.

I've been wanting to go star gazing for well over a year now, but for one reason or another I haven't done so. Sometimes the night has been lovely and clear, but I've had no one to go with. Sometimes I've had someone to go with, but I decided not to mention it because it sounded a little cheesy. And sometimes the night has been clear and I've had people to go with, but it's ridiculously cold outside and I'm out of my mind if I think we're going star gazing tonight, missy!

Oh ho, dear reader, that was not the case on this night! LG was totally on board with star gazing as it was relatively clear and had been pleasantly warm all day, and we roped Tim into coming, as well. LG and I returned to E26 after a pit stop at Redbox, got plenty spooked at the movie** (which was better than I expected, but I probably have very low standards for horror movies, so don't necessarily take my word for it), watched an episode of New Girl for some needed light-heartedness after the movie, and then proceeded to bundle up and head out for our star gazing adventure!

Laura was layered into basically every single long sleeve/pants she owns, and I pulled on a flannel shirt, pea coat, and the world's most comfortable scarf. We picked up Tim, who was wearing jeans and a thin jacket, because he is a man and doesn't fear the cold. We drove from one side of town to the other trying to decide where we would have the clearest view with the least light pollution, but also not end up somewhere so sketchy that a serial killer would likely find and kidnap us (I guess New Girl didn't totally negate the creeped-out factor that was left by the movie).

Eventually, we ended up on the side of a dirt road near a clearing east of town. And it was glorious.

The moon was incredibly bright, and this was
the best picture I could get with an iPhone. But
trust me: there were stars, and it was pretty.

We uncorked a bottle of wine (or shared milk and cookies, if that makes you feel better, Mom!), kicked back on some blankets, and looked at the stars. We even serenaded each other, because I lost a bet to Tim and he made me sing "Party in the USA," but  we ended up all singing together, because how can you not join in and sing that song? The cold did start to get to us, and we ended up in a cuddle heap underneath a couple of blankets. It was surprisingly cozy, but it did come at a price. I might have gotten licked...

Time passed, stars shone, constellations were spotted, stories were shared, and noises were made. By "noises were made," I mean we played a rousing round of "Make That Noise***," in which the player must use only their mouths to make an abnormal sound, such as windshield wipers during a rainstorm, stampeding giraffes, penguins having a fist fight, or a cuckolded husband chopping wood. I was awful, Tim was pretty good, and Laura was the champ.

And that's that. All in all, I'd say the weekend was a success and star gazing was a delightful adventure. What do you think? Was that shenanigany enough for you?

Alright, Timothy. I held up my end. Bring on that poetry!
 - AH


*OSM is a tradition started by LG and her lovely roommate Alexis Z. (who also happens to be one of my best friends!) that they invited me and our friend Lillian C. to join when we were in undergrad. It was a nice throwback to celebrate it again. 

**We watched House at the End of the Street in my room at E26. When it ended, I started to go downstairs, but LG asked me to wait on her while she used the bathroom because she didn't want to be left alone upstairs. I, of course, made merciless fun of her, but was a good friend and waited until she was ready to come down with me. We watched New Girl and ate brie and crackers like classy ladies before parting ways to change into warmer clothes. Laura left E26, and I put the cheese plate and knife in the kitchen before starting upstairs to change clothes. I wasn't up two steps before the more-than-likely-just-unbalanced-and-not-at-all-possessed knife clattered off the edge of the sink and onto the plate below. I was so startled that I immediately called LG and made her stay on the phone with me while I checked all the rooms in the apartment. She laughed at me, but was pretty nice and patient, considering the previous circumstances. Conclusion: we are both great big scaredy cats, but really good friends! 

***Shout out to Jill N. and Lillian C., previous E26 residents, for introducing LG to that game!