In November of last year, Kathryn sat me down at a Whataburger and broke the news to me that she would be moving to Nebraska and wanted to know my thoughts. I gave her a look that telepathically translated to You're not moving, discussion over. The discussion wasn't over. Of course, in the beginning, I really didn't think she would go through it--that it was a phase and tomorrow we'd be talking about how we both needed to go Christmas shopping really bad.
It was note a phase. Unless a phase is, doing a whole bunch of research and applying for tons of jobs, scoring a great teaching job and signing an apartment lease. Nope, not it. It didn't really hit me that she was interviewing for jobs up there until she called to tell me that she was offered TWO elementary music positions in Lincoln, Nebraska. WHAT? This can't actually be happening...
I promised her that if she did decide to move, I'd go with her to Nebraska and help her get unpacked. So, there I was looking for stupid Nebraska plane tickets and asking for time off at work. Finally, got the week off and secured my 4A seats on both planes and was off to help her move away.
OOPS, totally forgot, before she moved a million miles away (915 miles), I came up with an awesome idea to throw her a going away party. First I sent out an email to all the SAI (Sigma Alpha Iota) girls asking when they'd be free and if they were interested. Once we decided on a date (I must have responded to like 15 emails in 10 minutes) and time, I decided to make it an invite-only Facebook event. At first, I thought, not many people will show because even when people do RSVP, they don't show...I was wrong. We had it at a local bar (the Flying Saucer) and by the time she got there, there were 30 of her friends there. The best part is...she had NO idea (how?!) and she was so surprised. I just wanted her to be able to say goodbye to all of the important people (that I could get a hold of) before she started a brand new adventure. Okay, back to the story.
We got her all unloaded and set up (mostly) and had some fun memories along the way. Pandora was a fun addition to our 14 hour drive...yes, I forgot to mention we DROVE up to Nebraska. Fun times. With a cat in the backseat. Be jealous (or jeals as we call it). By the time Kat had to drive me to Omaha to go back home, it really started to hit me that she was really going to stay there. I tried not to think about it the whole drive to Omaha...but it kept creeping into my brain. I thought she was just going to drop me off because parking is expensive, but to my surprise, she parked in the garage and got out with me. We got me all checked in and my bag was sent off and as I was walking with my overly large carry on bag, she was giving me directions to security (which I didn't hear and had to ask some random lady later...embarrassing), I started to cry. Not the cute-out-of-the-corner-of-your-eye tears, UGLY cry. It was not a fun goodbye, let's just say that.
When I got home, I cried some more, because she literally knows me better than anyone else and I know we'll still text and call and blah blah, but it just isn't the same. Four weeks after I got back, I decided to unpack my overly large carry on bag. What did I find? A really cute framed letter that Kathryn had slipped in my bag before I left. I cried like a big baby and then smiled. I know she's going to be great up in crazy cornville, but I still wish on Friday nights she could teleport here so we could watch scary movies and drink Sangria :)
The night we both got bids for Sigma Alpha Iota
The day we got pinned as members in training (MITs) for Sigma Alpha Iota
TMEA!
Our service project
We sang a duet for our musicale
Halloween!
Most of those pictures were during our SAI process, haha, but we still have fun pictures!
Of course this post was brought on by drinking some wine and texting her, haha (that sounds very strange) but I planned on blogging about it at some point. The thing about best friends is, no matter where you are in the world, the simplest text message makes you laugh so hard, you could pee your pants. Or, in Kathryn's case, I could text the word "moist" and she'd freak out. :)
Life long friends aren't life long because they live five minutes away, they are life long friends because they will always be there and love you for who you are, even when they know the worst things about you. I still hate Nebraska but I'm so glad she got the opportunity to start a new adventure.
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