Day 3:

This morning I was awoken by the screeching sound of the alarm on my phone….”Ughh, where am I?” I thought. “Did I dream about being on a roundtrip with Grant and Jesus?!” Oh Wait… I am doing that… because the Buddy Christ is on my background of the computer!!!

For those of you who have seeing me early in the mornings you know one thing is VERY true. I am not functional until there is at least one cup of coffee in my system. Grant is learning Very well that I am Zombie Rose until the second cup. In my sate of disillusion I stand in the bathroom putting on makeup. BK is making coffee and Grant is getting ready. He walks over and peeks his head into the bathroom. He is wearing a black Christian “hardcore” band shirt some tight (ya’ll I mean tight) cut off shorts, Chocó’s and the Presbyterian Gagster hat…. He looks at me as I put on my eyeliner and says in the most Gangster way he can

“word.”

“Yes, Grant… that’s what they called Jesus” I reply simply

“Fo Sho”

As we finish getting ready and running out of the house to a VERY full day of meeting up with Mo peep’s BK’s Mom is right there chatting with us. BK himself is in a state of half awake so he is very quite. We load up in the cars and set off to MO RANCH!! We have a lunch date with a One Mr. Clayton, and One Mrs. Laura. SO SO SO SO EXCITED we start the drive. Because If I were to drive it would be unsafe because of lack of coffee Grant gets behind the wheel. I make a crack about if we get pulled over I might get a ticket for ‘driving without the influence of coffee’

            We start down the road, and stop at a McDonalds  for coffee and soda… because we can… take that Universe!! Not but twenty min’s into the drive we start the relationship talk. Its bound to happen in any long trip with good friends.

“Sooo… Rosie, how’s the dating life?”

“Really Grant? Were gonna do this?” I say.

“Of Corse! Besides, you brought it up” he says.

Guilty as charged. We begin to spend the rest of the trip to Mo talking about relationships, prospects, ex’s, and our different thoughts on marriage. Grant tells me the story about the most recent ex that he broke up with because she didn’t have unlimited text and didn’t like the Goonies. “good reasons” I thought.  It was a lot of fun listing to Grant talk about his ‘type’ and joking about CR’s and everyone we know who is getting married.

Grant cleverly states “Marriage is like becoming a minster of a church, all it is about is being faithful and putting up with a bunch of crap!”

“Truth.” I smile

As we hit Kerrville, Grant realize that he has never actually driven to Mo. He’s always carpooling, or in a van. Nice, that this trip can do that for you. We listen to Ben Folds and start down the last stretch of the road. As we go through Ingram, we see stone hinge.

“WHAT?!” Grant yells

“are they moving stone hinge?”

“no…” Grants eyes squint.

As we drive down 1340 we see that they are intact MOVING Stone Hinge… The Easter Isle statues are already gone. Sorry folks. But at least it is staying in the area. So don’t cry to much, it will be ok.

As we drive the winding roads towards the place of my baptism I fly my hand out the window like an airplane. Its beautiful… the sky has the perfect number of fluffy clouds, is 86 degrees of Perfect Texas heat, the longhorns are out, God is smiling down on us every worry and everything else in my life disappeared except the smile on my face…. Perfect moment.

We cross over the Mo bridge and Grant hits the traditional Horn Burst and I WOOHOO out the window. We Had Arrived! We fallow the new roads in (which I’m still not use too) and park by the registration office and walk over to the Program office. We not that despite the fact that Clayton had said he ‘might have time for us’ the parking lot is Shockingly empty… “Sure Clayton” I think, “ you were just trying to conceal your excitement… he missed me.” We walked into the program office and the front room was empty. Finally we make it back into Clayton’s office where he is hiding. We laugh and he gives me a big hug.

“Hey Chicha!” He says

“Well hello Slim!” I say noting that he had lost 30libs

“Long time no see!” grant says

Chuckling Clayton Responds “ How are you brother”

            They do that man handshake hug thing… I have never quite put tougher that one. Oh well. WE sit down and now that the pleasentries are done the trash talk begins. … Ahhhh! How I have missed the signs of real friendship. One insult after another fly across the room as we find out about how the summers have been, the families, how I feel about seminary and so on.

            Grant and I head over to the main office for a few min’s while Clayton “works on some email” Sure. And run into the Jordan’s and Laura Kean. We chat it up, then Laura Grant and I head over to the Wagon Wheel. YES!!! Toco Salad, how I missed you! That makes meal number 4 that’s been TexMex in a row.

            While in the Wagon Wheel we see Conn, John, and  Gray Batty. Were chatting it up and having a great time. We pass out the road trip Evert’s and Clayton like a jerk breaks the trend and gets his on his left wrist versus the right ankle that everyone else has been doing. Gary gives Clayton a look and says that he wants his on the right ankle. We laugh and thank him for being so wonderful. We leave after an inspection of my car by Clayton. He states that I should come and visit again for a little bit longer next time

“but not too much longer!” we laugh and Hug “see ya later chicka, we miss you.” he says.

 I smile. “ I miss ya’ll to say Hi to Kate for me.”

It sure is good to be loved. Mo Ranch, you stole my Heart three years ago… and today was proof you still have it.  We leave towards Kerrville to see Sarah Wilcox… now Sarah Lenard. We think that we are meeting at the starbucks. Grant sat outside to work on his Chaco Tan but she ended up not coming there. We follow her directions ( strange as they were) and visit her at her DESK JOB! OH Sarah, that place has changed you. We laugh and giggle and talk about life and how things have been. We tell her all about the trip so far and catch her up on the state of our Mo buddies. Hearing Sarah’s laugh made me sooo Happy. How I have missed her. We hoped in the car and drove on our way trying to make it to Waco to see Avocado. As were driving Sarah starts to blow up our phones with text. Grant and Sarah get into this conversation:

G: I noticed your big girl job has changed you a bit. We heard you say something old Sarah would never say. “I’m sweating, gross”

S: HAHAHAHAHA!!! Buncha bullshit, ain’t it???!! I HATE being stuck at a desk. My vagabonding gypsy spirit isn’t cut to be “normal”.

We drive down the road and get Stuck in Austin Traffic!!!  There is always something in Austin. Always (DAMN YOU RUBBER NECKERS!!! ) After an hour of getting from one side of Austin to the other we find out that we will not be seeing Avocado… Bummer. She apparently had a tough day, and we were running really late. So we drove on. As we crossed into Waco, we stopped and ate at Fazollies. (Amazing btw)

At the restaurant we got into a complaining fest about the things we hate. We decided that we hate rubberneckers, people that toss salt over there shoulder, automatic bathroom towel dispensers, and shmucks.  We tossed up a what’s up to the skies for Amanda and Dave Hyers, and drive on. The rest of the drive we listen to Pandora on the phone and jam out. I started the blog and we JUST arrived in Fort Worth. Since this evening will probably be so epic that it needs its own blog… I will leave you for the night. RoseAndGrants and LaurnSturn are reunited!!

More tomorrow.

Peace.

*************PART 2**********************

Day 3-part 2

            As we are driving into Fort Worth we change the address to on the OnStar from Laurn’s apartment to this little place called Woody’s. The OnStar Guy is Having a hard time finding the address, he says

OSG: “I’m Sorry Ms. Southwell, it will take just a moment while it searches”

R: “No worries”

OSG:” How are you all doing this evening?”

G: Doing really great man! We have a and Awesome(sauce) day!”

OSG: “That’s great”

R: “Yea Dude were on a road tip across Texas to see all of our fiends”

OSG: “Oh that’s wonderful, well Ms Southwell I have set up your route, enjoy your road trip!”

G: WOOOOOO!

R: WoooHOOO!!

OSG: WOOOO!

(Pause)

R: did he just wooohoo with us?

G: Yes he did!!!!

R: That’s Fantastic!!

OSG: (chuckles in the background)

The called ended and the directions were sent to the car. The excitement to see Lauren was so thick in the car we had to roll down the windows.  We missed it by accident and pulled into a gas station. (because we can!) and I ran in for a moment. The guy at the counter as me how my day had been I I told him that I had just had the best day that was going to get even better. And that anyone who had a better day than I had, Should die… and leave on the best day of their life.  I giggled and walked out of the store. We ran into to discover that Lauren had not arrived yet. So we find a place to sit and wait. The mins drag by, but then… There she is!!!

            I run and give her a hug about knocking over the door guy in the process. I say Hi to Brynn whom Grant, Lauren, and I all hang out with on our December trip in Fort Worth. We sit down and start talking. Grant and Brynn Zone in on the Mets game and Lauren and I chat about life and my summer internship. Poor Lauren has gotten  one of those “God Hates ME! I-Don’t-want-to-do-this-anymore !!!” Crying phone calls over the summer. So I has some major catching her up to do. Yes I am staying in seminary…. For now.

            More of Lauren’s friends arrive and we proceed to have a wonderful time. After some good laughs at Woody’s we go back to Laurens place and play with a question ball. The three of us do some watering of plants… That right. Apparently Lauren had a FOREST of Basle in her apartment! HAHAH! I can’t get anything to grow no matter how hard I try but Lauren… by accent gets 200 basle pants to sprout. After question ball, we chat it up until 6:30am! We question it up with Will and Lauren and take ourselves off to bed.  This night lived up to the EPIC statues that Only RoseAndGrants and LaurenStern can only achieve.

            Friends, I remembered why I do what I do. Good people, Good times, and lots of laughs.