29 Again

As our baby boy headed back to Platteville this afternoon, I realized why I am not a big fan of math. According to my calculations, it has been three decades – yes, decades – since I was in college. Ouch.

Some days, though, I feel like it was yesterday. Today was one of those days.

Thanks to social media, I have been able to reconnect or stay connected with several friends from UW-La Crosse. A half dozen were RAs with me at Angell Hall and another half dozen were friends, roommates, fellow newspaper nerds and more. While many of us still reside in the Dairy State, we just don't see each other. Why is that? I don't know. We're all so busy parenting that our time is taken up with weekend tournaments, school events and the like.

The benefit of living in central Wisconsin – and the hour-drive radius around me – is that it is the go-to location for events and conferences. So sometimes when the calendars, stars and planets align, I get to see an old friend.

Today, my college friend Carrie ("Sarge") from Milwaukee area was in Wausau with her family to watch her oldest son wrestle. Thanks to the 70 mph speed limit on I-39, Wausau is less than an hour from here. Unfortunately, I had a training day at church so I couldn't make it up there to watch him. In fact, right when I arrived home after the meetings, she let me know Ben was done wrestling for the day after his second loss and they were headed home.

Since we hadn't seen each other in 7 years (we calculated it), I said I could meet them on their way home to Milwaukee, depending which way there were going. "I can just meet you at a gas station on your route, just for a drive-by hug!"

Turns out we did better than that and met by Stevens Point and Plover to have a quick cup of frozen yogurt at Sweet Frog, accompanied by hugs (of course) and quick catching up.

So great to see her! We had so much fun when we were Resident Assistants on the first floor of Angell Hall. And you know when that was? 29 years ago! Yup, we were celebrating our 29th, I guess. Not birthday, just anniversary of our friendship.

Sometimes when schedules aren't aligning, you gotta drive a few extra miles to make it happen! Totally worth it. Always totally worth it.

Felt more like 19 than 29... til we both realized our "little boys" are taller than us! They keep changing yet we stay the same. How does that work?

Must be our clean Wisconsin living highlighted with occasional trips down Memory Lane, real-life conversations and smiles, and extra long drive-by hugs.