My Beautiful College Campus!

I got a call on Monday from one of my good girlfriends saying she would like to take a road trip to our college! Wow! On the one hand I really wanted to see the campus again, catch up with old friends, and have a little adventure to rescue me from the boredom I have been experiencing at home. Don't get me wrong, I have been keeping busy, finding things to read (I am officially in love with lds.org), working on various projects, but I have missed the companionship of really good friends, the spirit that I can feel right when I step onto campus, and oddly, my very hectic life style where I hardly had the time to feed myself. I missed all that because it was so associated with the learning and growth I have had over the past two semesters.
On the other hand, it was really bad timing because it was also one of my other friend's last full weeks at home before he is set apart as a missionary. Lately we had been hanging out and I didn't want to miss my last little bit of time with him. Also, my mother wanted me to go to the cannery :) with her and she wasn't all for the idea of me driving up there by myself and one other "cute" girl.
So it was a hard decision. I talked it over with my soon-to-be-missionary friend (we both had a hard time and I shed a few tears), took a deep breath, and followed my heart. I felt good about the decision, and as it turns out I'm sure my friend was grateful for it later. But I will get to that part. I made arrangements and on Tuesday (with a prayer) we were off!
At first it was great. My friend and I were both excited to be on the road and doing something we had never done before. But I think we were both aware that we had to be safe and responsible drivers (that was one thing I had been initially concerned about with her - not because she was a crazy driver, because I'd seen her drive and she did well, but I knew she likes to speed, but then again, so does my dad). I couldn't believe how much my friend had grown up, though. She had planned for this in like a day, but exceptionally well. We had a cooler for all of our food (since she was on this crazy special diet and I wasn't fond of buying any - me being unemployed and all). We both had maps and housing we wanted to look at. I made arrangements for where we were going to stay, gas was going to be taken care of by her parents. It was awesome. That night we made it to my Grandparent's house. I didn't get to see my grandpa the whole time we were there, because he was asleep when we got there and still sleeping when we left. My grandma spoiled me with pizza and let me look at some pictures. And of course, it wouldn't have been a visit to Grandma's house had she not given me the scoop about everything. :) She informed me about my aunt and cousins and a bit about my own sister. My grandma is "a genius" and always knows what is going on. I love her! It was so kind of her to let us stay there and to wait up for us. I think that is the hardest thing about traveling. She will dote on us and though it is greatly appreciated, I always want to give something in return. Well, the "fee" for our stay was a promise to call her when we arrived to our destination. We got up early the next morning. Grandma came stumbling out of her room saying, "You were serious about waking up in the middle of the night, huh?" I though that was funny and cute. Just like grandma in every way. But I did feel bad about her getting up so early. She again spoiled us with breakfast (she always likes to get cereal she knows the grandkids will like - except this time it was a poached egg, one of her new things to do for us). It was strange to see my grandma see me off (mainly because usually she tells my mom or dad to drive safe-not me), but fun at the same time. Again we said a prayer and then we hit the road. We arrived at our destination in enough time to tour around campus, explore the housing my friend had in mind (the more I went to the different houses and apartments the more I became convinced that I chose the right one for me. I'm excited!), catch a movie, and see friends.
A lot of my friends were gone or were busy preparing for midterms or in rehearsal so, I tried to entertain the friend I traveled up with. She's one of those people who has to have something going on or goes crazy. That seemed to be the case. I was actually content to stay and relax at the girl's apartment we were staying at for the night, but she was going to have steam coming out her ears if we did that. In fact, she was anxious to get on the road again. Which, I admit would have made sense:
1. We would stay at my Grandmother's house that night and then we wouldn't have such a long drive in the morning
2. She didn't know all these people that I was so anxious to see
3. She had accomplished what she had come there to do
4. I had (sort of, briefly) seen the people I wanted to see
So, as you can see, I was quite torn. After all, I didn't want to waste her time. After all, this was her trip and I should be grateful just to be able to have had a free ride up there and back as well as see the friends I love so much, despite how brief it was. And she was having a hard time, though she wouldn't talk to me about it. I could see that she was also very hungry from her crazy diet that mostly consisted of vegetables (not very filling). She needed more substance, but there wasn't much around. Luckily we found some fake meat patties for her that she could eat.
Despite all this, I couldn't bring myself to drive away so soon. I thought maybe I was being selfish, and so I resisted my feelings. I decided to discuss it with my friend. I asked for her to look at it from my point of view. But then I told her that I didn't want to make this experience a bad one. I wanted to talk it out with her. She kind of lost her patience and said it was fine, while clearly meaning it wasn't.
I didn't know how this was going to affect her mood in the morning, but at the same time I was grateful, for what ever reason, I didn't feel comfortable leaving that night.
So, I got to meet up with one of my really good friends who helped me surprise another one of my really good friends in one of the buildings. Then I went up to the beautiful temple that I love so much with him. Then we returned to the girl's apartment I was staying at and then he and I went and got some pizza for all of us. Actually, I should say he got the pizza, because he wouldn't let me pay for it, pointing out that I didn't have a job and he did. When I tried to pay him back later that night he asked if I would really deny him the opportunity to give a gift to his friends. Wow. What a guy! Who does that! He was being so nice, and I wanted to give back in return, but I guess I'll just have to be more clever, because that way was not going to fly.
One of my friends told me I should come to a jazz thing. In fact, I really had no idea what he was talking about, but anything with the word "jazz" sounded great to me. Plus I trusted him and his judgement. He's a good friend and music major like myself. So I was under the impression that it was a concert that he was going to be in, because he had invited me to so many of his concerts before that I was unable to attend for one reason or another (mainly keeping myself alive and eating) so, I felt I should go to finally give him some support. As it turns out, it was like this cute little place, kind of set up like a club, but totally lds. Professors, students from the university and students of the guest players were there. It was really good. Cute idea! My friend was still a little mopey and openly shared her displeasure for being there, but I enjoyed it and hoped she would to. She likes jazz. While I was there I got to see some people I was hoping I would cross paths with while I was there. It was awesome! I was determined to go to bed at a somewhat decent time, so we headed back early. I was then able to talk with my room mates and friend who I hadn't really been able to see for a long time. I was so comfortable at that moment in time. It was a feeling of home that came over me. It was like I was living at school again and everything was right. I was so at peace. But eventually I had to go to bed. I was scared that my friend was going to make me drive all the way home by myself in punishment for keeping her there. So I did. I woke up on time, and had to wake her up, and then we loaded our things and were off.
Well, at first, it was all good. Smooth sailing. But then something strange happened. The light on the clock started to flicker and go out. Then the speedometer went crazy, going back and forth and back and forth. My friend woke up just in time to call her dad about it. The car was still running at that point so I kept going. Then when my friend's father called a little later to see how it was going, I felt the car give out beneath me. I pulled over to hear her saying ,"What are you doing? Get back on the highway!" She hadn't realized what was going on. I had to tell her it died. Well, what followed was a kind of adventure. We gave directions to a tow company and only had to wait a bout a half an hour. While we were waiting a highway patrolman stopped by to see how we were doing. He gave us some common sense directions. It was kind of funny to me actually, though appreciated. Well, then we got towed and the car got fixed up in a jiffy. We actually spent most of our time in the shop waiting for the car part. And before too long we were on the road again! We even got home before dark.
Now, the moral of the story: Had we gone home when it made sense, and I felt pressured to, we probably would have broken down without any hazard lights (because I couldn't get any lights on when the car died and that wouldn't have been all that safe because the car died right on the shoulder, i struggled with the fact that it was so close to the highway and I couldn't move it any further) in the dark. Yep, that's right. Us two "cute" girls would have been waiting for a tow truck in some fairly dim lighting since I estimate, it would have been in the evening that we would have broken down. Who is to say if something bad would have happened. Perhaps it wouldn't have mattered either way. But I'm sure we would have been waiting longer to get the car fixed, and I definitely wouldn't have been as comfortable in the shop that evening as I had been the next day in the afternoon. We were truly blessed the way things turned out. My friend actually turned out to love our college town by the time we left and we both had a pleasant trip back. Our moods were definitely better and our spirits uplifted. We arrived home happy and safe. And I don't believe we did it alone. We were never a lone the whole trip.