There is one New Years that pops into my head now and again. When I think about it, I can't help but smile. Senior year, a bunch of us softball players headed out to California to stay with a teammate and see several others. All told, about half our team was there, which was pretty dang cool.
We got to go to the beach, explore this decidedly non-east coast world, and we got to laugh and be silly and have fun. We got to go see the Price is Right, when Bob Barker was still the host. It was oddly tiny in that studio, but seriously cool nonetheless. We went to visit another teammate after making the mistake of going to Carl's Junior...we ate so much we could barely move. When we got to her house, I collapsed on the ground and fell asleep on the floor. Of course, my friends were ever so understanding...they kept throwing the dog's ball over me so it would walk on me and run on me and leap over me repeatedly. Luckily, I can fall asleep in almost any circumstance....and I got Julie back years later in Indiana, when I riled up Mendy's devil dog and kept causing him to run over her on the bed...and then he vomited on her. I had to leave the room I was laughing so hard.
In addition to breaking Lauren's sprinkler pole, we also destroyed her family's septic system, and Taryn managed to suck up her phone charger in an expensive vacuum. That moment, the one where the phone charger cord was sucked up in the vacuum, when we were trying to make up for all the other bad things we did to that house by cleaning...that is a moment that can make me laugh out loud in public. I was in the other room and could hear the vacuum humming along. Suddenly the sound of the cord being sucked up rippled through the house. You know the sound - that horrible grating, piercing, scratching sound that continues to suck up whatever is stuck until you finally regain the wherewithal to turn off the vacuum. As the noise continued to spiral out of control, I heard Taryn shouting for help, which only made the situation more humorous. Sometimes, just hearing something is more funny that seeing it, because the sound is so distinct that you know exactly what is taking place. I have the same reaction when I hear tires peeling out in snow. It just gets me.
The best part about that night and that trip was spending it with my girls. We are a group of friends - a group that extends out into other groups and other teams - that truly love and support one another. We can always make each other laugh. We spur on each others' creativity, turning mundane observations into elaborate hypothetical stories. We feel happiness when someone in our group succeeds. To spend time with this group of women on New Years Eve was a special experience. Hell, spending years of my life with these women was something that has shaped me in so many significant ways. Every single day, I miss seeing them, hearing about the little details of their daily lives, laughing with them over silly things.