A Party Filled Weekend

Somehow I managed to go to three parties in three different cities this past weekend.

And, completely related to that, I managed to sleep for a full 12 hours last night.

And I may have some more napping to do today.

But before that happens, here's the (much abbreviated) details on the weekend.

Friday: 30th Birthday Party for a girl I went to high school with in Dallas.

Okay, so I actually haven't seen or talked to the Birthday girl, Brooke, since she graduated high school 12 years ago. So the reason I ended up at her Birthday party is the fact that the party was being held at another friend, Monica (that I have kept up with), from high school's house. I knew I was going to be in town that weekend and wanted to hang out with her. She suggested I just come to this party to hang out with her and everyone else.

But we had a great time at the Birthday party. They cooked some amazing barbecue and all the fixin's. We kinda went beyond the pre-determined end time of the party, midnight, by three hours. Which was fine by me, but probably didn't feel so good to Monica and her husband who left at 8am to drive all the way to Abilene. OUCH.

Saturday: Natalie's surprise Birthday Party in Fort Worth.

First, I went to Chelsea's where we did what we do best, nothing. I mean, we act like we're going to do a lot and be productive every time we get together. But really, we just spend money while wondering around town and then end up on the couch watching TV.

Then we headed to Natalie's surprise party where we were in charge of bringing the decorations that we spent half the day wondering around town getting.

Only, we didn't actually bring the decorations to the party.

Seriously, Chelsea and I are both teachers out for the summer. We have nothing other people expect us to accomplish during the months of June and July,

except bring decorations to a surprise party.

And yet, we didn't.

Luckily, Chelsea has a husband that is awesome and he went back to their house and got the decorations for us. WHEW.

But the surprise party went wonderfully! They had it at Chimy's in Fort Worth. Here she is walking in:

The party was great, I don't think I have laughed as hard

as I did at the party in a long time! Here's some pictures I stole from Chelsea:

After the party we went to 8.0's, I took about a billion of the same pictures, so I whittled it down to just these few:

Sunday: Going away party for Emily R. in Austin.

(And sorry Emily, this is the best picture I could find of you after about an hour of searching. She's the one singing on the left, fyi.)

First, I had to drive to Austin which was not very fun with the hangover I had. But I made it.

We went to the Draught House, which is a pretty cool place that makes you feel like you've walked straight into a pub in England.

(Not that I've ever been to a pub in England, but it's what I imagine it would be like.)

Emily R. I have written about a few times, we met over two years ago when we were put on the same kickball team, the Bad News Brews. But now she is leaving for Egypt.

And no, that was not a typo.

Yes, Egypt. I can't believe it myself.

But she had several of her friends come and go to the bar. I somehow managed to drink a couple of beers. We all had a great time.

Afterwards, we went to dinner at a place called Mandola's Italian Market. One of the guys with us was from Italy, and it was really funny when everyone started throwing out ideas of what to eat when the Italian said he didn't want to be stereotypical, but he wanted pizza.

Apparently, he's tried many Italian restaurants around town and this is one of only a few that got his stamp of approval. And I can see why, it was amazing food! I am definitely going to return to that place especially since I now know there's one closer to my house.

But I said goodbye to Emily. Out of no where, I cried as we said our good-byes. I had no idea I was going to cry about it, until it happened. It may have had a small thing to do with my lack of sleep. But mostly I think it has to do with the fact that I have a friend moving to a very far away place that I am unlikely to visit. She's a good friend that I can always count on and I am going to miss hanging out with her. She promised she'd be back to visit us, we'd keep in touch through blogs, email and facebook and we promised each other we would be at each others weddings... one day.

After that, well, I think I mentioned somewhere in there how tired I was after all of that. :)