favourite moment of twenty11.

After watching a spectacular firework display from the twenty-seventh floor of our hotel, Grams and I returned to our room to drink wine + have a dance party {roomies, you would have been proud.} We had been talking about our resolutions over dinner and how fast this year flew by and all the experiences we were lucky enough to see and everything we hoped the new year would bring us. 

Then I proposed the question: What was your favourite moment of twenty11? And as we sat on our separate twin beds pondering, I thought about every day spent with reesey, turning a quarter century old, how close my sister + I are, the feeling of letting go, getting accepted to grad school, a teenage dream come true... like a reel of memographical footage as the highlights of twentyeleven played back in my head... but there is only one instant that remembering reduces me to tears and it happened on our annual roommate reunion. 

We were in San Diego frolicking in the sunshine. Loving on Jess's growing belly on our babymoon. Stopping to look at diamond rings in window displays because next year at this time Megan would be engaged {when really we all secretly knew in less than a month, David was going to ask her to marry her}. Celebrating Carly's writing career... and trying to help me figure out what direction I would be heading in from here {the answer: Seattle.} We ate lovely meals. We shopped in boutiques. We reminisced about the days when we were all a part of our everydays and dreamed of a life where we would all live on the same cul-de-sac raising our babies as best friends.  

On the second night, we all got ready together in one bathroom curling each other's hair, borrowing each other's clothes and having a dance party... for old time's sake. We headed to the Gaslamp district for dinner + more dancing. We were seated on the second floor of the restaurant. We placed our orders with our sweet, little waiter who asked us what the occasion was, "We were roommates in college. We reunite once a year somewhere in the world." Jess blessed the spectacular meal we were about to eat, one in which she received the filet mignon instead of the flank on accident + for no extra cost. Then, our waiter brought us out a free dessert to celebrate with us + celebrate that we prayed before our meal; he was watching from a distance. As we sat there eating our tiramisu, an acoustic singer started playing down below... and it was in this moment as the chords began to reverberate through the restaurant, that you could literally feel the world's revolution slow down... as if the universe was telling us, "Stop. Savor this moment. Look around at the four of you. How far you all have come, together. What you have gotten you through, together. What your presence means in each other's lives. Enjoy these small moments. With your three best friends." And as the guitar player reached the chorus and the Earth's cadence began to speed up, Megan whispered, with tears in her eyes, "I miss us."   

Adulthood is hard but knowing we will come to each other no matter where this crazy world takes us makes the living part easy. As I grow older, I've found an immense amount of comfort knowing that although we are changing and finding our own place in very different parts of the world, we haven't lost each other. Counting down the days 'til roommate reunion 2012.