Soaking in it.

How do I soak up this life that I'm living?

A few days ago, I went home to Northern Virginia. It's where I'm from. I went home to see my best friend, who is 8 months pregnant with her first-born child. I went to hang out in her living room while she worked from home and watched reruns of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, and then we drove over to Babies 'R' Us so I could spoil Baby D with clothes and rattles and various toys that I really can't afford right now. We went out to eat Mexican and spill the kind of kiss-and-tell secrets that only BFFs can spill. Then we returned home so I could cajole her into letting me take pictures of her belly. Eventually, she ran out to the grocery store to buy fruit, in order to entice the baby to kick for me; I settled in to watch the season finale of Grey's Anatomy.

On Saturday, T and I drove down to Southern VA for the wedding of a girl friend of mine's from college. She is the last of "the girls" to get married. She actually got engaged before I did, but she and her fiance put off the wedding because they paid for the whole thing themselves, and they wanted to Do It Right. This was an awesome wedding because it brought together a whole bunch of friends from school that haven't seen each other in a long time. And really, we don't know when the next time we'll all be together under the same roof again. Dancing. It was a blast. Even if I did get mad at T partway through the night for getting a little too loose-lipped with his jokes, and maybe because I was a little exhausted from T's sudden love of dancing. I couldn't keep up with him! All my girlfriends, on the other hand, continue to be amazed that this "quiet" "shy" guy is bending his knees, shaking his hips and getting low low low low on the floor, while most of the dudes are standing on the sidelines watching with detatched amusement. It was a fun time.

We're home now, with another old friend from college, A, one of T's groomsmen. He just got back from an incredible and incredibly fast two (or so) years in Guatemala with the Peace Corps. Now A is here visiting, and I am trying to make the most of my last days before my summer job starts. And trying to really, really soak it in. What, exactly? Just it. Life. Summer. Youth. (Or whatever you call the days just before you turn 29.) My time in Big City. My time with T as "newlyweds". Downtime. So yeah. Life.