Just watched this episode of Friends again tonight. Makes me cry every time! Mostly because I think it’d be pretty neat to marry your best friend. Worked out for my parents, at least…
If you know anything about me, you know I liked to plan. I don’t do things last-minute; well, sometimes, many times, I do homework last-minute, but I know about the homework in advance. I might plan to do it last-minute.
Regardless, this need of mine to plan everything is what made the past four days so unique for me.
Point of Spontaneity #1: The Tigers are Coming
Tuesday night after a disappointing Mizzou bowl game loss, I get a text from my friend Amanda asking me if she and one to three people from Mizzou could come stay at my house for a night on their way to an Aggie New Year’s party in Temple, Texas, about two hours away from my house. I told her sure but didn’t get a confirmed number of people or time of arrival until Wednesday morning. Amanda and my friends Matt, David and Justin would be arriving late Thursday night. They would spend the night before heading south for New Year’s.
David and Matt climbing a mountain this summer
Amanda and Justin at a canvas group hangout this fall
Point of Spontaneity #2: The Plan to Surprise Barclay
This is when a brilliant idea struck me. I had already made New Year’s plans to hang out with my friend Barclay because my usual plans of spending the night with my friend Angela were foiled due to the fact that she spent New year’s visiting her lovely boyfriend in Tennessee.
Angela and I ringing in 2007
Justin and Barclay climbing a mountain in the summer of 2008
Barclay met my friend Justin at LT a few summers ago and had been good friends, though they hadn’t seen each other in a long time. I began to formulate the perfect surprise plan that would include Justin sticking around Arlington with me to surprise Barclay instead of heading south with the other Mizzou people.
Point of Spontaneity #3: The Trip to College Station
This unfortunately meant that Justin had to meet back up with the Mizzou people, who were heading to College Station after Temple. This meant I would need to deliver Justin and had to convince Barclay to come with me to College Station on New Year’s day without telling him why he needed to come. I told him I needed help “delivering something” (someone), and after he asked me a million questions trying to get me to reveal my surprise, I told him it would be worth it, and he agreed.
Point of Spontaneity #4: A Couple More Random Tigers Show Up
Thursday the Mizzou people arrived, including my friend Katie who goes to Mizzou and lives in Fort Worth, and we fell asleep watching a really great straight-to-TV movie on VHS called The Ewok Adventure. Friday morning we got up and had breakfast before Katie had to go home and we drove around Arlington a bit. Then there was lunch, and Matt, David and Amanda left for Temple. By this point, another Mizzou Texan, Liz White, had joined us for a few hours.
Katie during the first snow of Mizzou this year
Liz climbing a mountain this summer
By the end of Friday, there had been six different Mizzou people in my house. All of this on top of the three college friends my sister has been hosting as well. Needless to say, our house was packed!
Point of Spontaneity #5: Barclay Comes to Arlington
Friday, Justin and I drove to Dallas and surprised Barclay, which was a pretty great success. He hadn’t expected a thing, and my only regret was not getting his reaction on camera. We spent New Year’s Eve catching up, eating, sipping punch and laughing at the house of a family friend of Barclay’s family. The original plan for Saturday’s trip to College Station included Barclay driving to meet me at my house before we left, but Friday night at the party we decided he should just come back to my house that night, so he did.
Point of Spontaneity #6: Just the Encouragement I Needed
Saturday Justin, Barclay and I left for the three-hour drive to College Station. Luckily the drive went by really quickly as Barclay told us about his trip to Kansas City’s IHOP (International House of Prayer) a few weeks ago. His stories of God working in his life were unbelievable and really amazing to hear. Not only did his stories keep the drive from becoming long, they were a perfect boost of encouragement for me in the middle of my month-long break. After two weeks of being home, away from community, I had fallen back into this apathetic, complacent place that I so often get stuck in. Hearing about God working in my friends’ life always rejuvenates me and spurs me back into conversation with God, so I was very blessed by this drive in particular.
Point of Spontaneity #6: Black Swan was Awesome and Awkward
Once we got to College Station, we met up with David, Matt, Amanda and other friends from LT, Ruthy and Kelsey. Justin, Barclay and I grabbed dinner before heading back to Ruthy’s house and hanging out before we went on to our evening plans. Barclay and I decided we wanted to see Black Swan because we didn’t want to go to the dance hall with the others. You can see movies in College Station for $5 at night! It was amazing. Barclay and I confused the ticket salesmen as we handed him Mizzou and A&M student IDs, even though I was in an A&M shirt and Barclay was in a maroon Mizzou tee. The movie was really good minus some really awkward sex scenes. We decided it would be a great movie with some censoring.
Point of Spontaneity #7: We Decide to Stay Another Night
After the movie we went back to Ruthy’s house and hung out more while Barclay tried to fulfill his New Year’s resolution to do a wheelie in Justin’s wheelchair. Our original plan had Barclay and I heading back to the DFW Sunday afternoon, but we decided Saturday night to stay another night, despite the fact that I didn’t bring an extra shirt, I forgot my toothbrush and didn’t have a towel. So unplanned/unprepared. Sunday morning all of us went to church and then out to eat at Layne’s fried chicken. Then we went back to Ruthy’s for watch a movie/nap before a campus tour. After wandering around campus for a while, we ate dinner at Papa John’s and then headed to O’Bannon’s bar for trivia. Our team consisted of Justin, Barclay, me, Amanda and Clark and Tim, two of Amanda’s friends from LT. We technically couldn’t win because we had more than four people on our team, but I will say that Barclay and I owned a double-point question about what CMYK stands for in the final round.
The Conclusion
Barclay and I left CStat for Dallas this morning, and I’ve spent the rest of the afternoon/evening recovering. By recovering I mean I took a shower in my clean girly shower (as opposed to Barclay’s roommates’ shower), brushed my teeth with an actual toothbrush (as opposed to my finger), put on clean clothes (as opposed to the same pair of jeans I wore for four days in a row) and took a long nap in my bed (as opposed to a couch) before dinner.
In the end, I spent 80+ hours with six different Tigers and five Aggies. I’m exhausted but also revitalized. I haven’t really gotten bored here at home yet, but I am two weeks into the break with two weeks left, and a trip like this was just the spark I needed to reset myself for the new semester. Last week I did nothing. I watched the first season of Greek and laid in bed. I’m ready to start over and make the most of these last two weeks, diving deeper into the Word, making goal for my last semester of undergrad and preparing myself for what is to come.
In the end, this spontaneous weekend was just what I needed, and for that, even the planner in me is quite thankful.
Barclay and Justin rocking some aviators in the car. This is the only photo I took this whole weekend. Maybe it should be my resolution to take more photos... I borrowed my sister's car for the trip to College Station, and we had a lot of fun with her aviators and the fact that she had a Christmas tree, a Razor scooter and a microwave in her trunk randomly.
Lindsay in Progress 