Time Travel

I received the best package in the mail! It was truly bittersweet as the package came from one of my best friends, Anne Marie (AMK - pronounced "Aym-kuh"). AMK and I met in college; I was a transfer and we were both sophomores at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. She was the very first real friend I made there and is pretty much the reason why I didn't go running back north during my first semester.

Back to the story: years ago, before I got married, our group of friends from Samford (mostly the girls I roomed with and that circle of friends) converged from all over the US to get together in Cincinnati (my home at the time). We had so much fun together we vowed to do it again. But, as you know, kids and jobs and other commitments got in the way. And in some cases, our bellies.

This summer, everyone decided that they should get together again - at our alma mater in Birmingham. Sadly, I couldn't work out a way to go; coming from Michigan down to Samford for one weekend driving just wouldn't work. It would take me almost a weekend to just get there. Flying didn't work either as my accumulated miles wouldn't get me a ticket that weekend. So, I am sad to say that I was the only one M.I.A. that weekend (Aug 1-2).

Being the good friend that she is, AMK got me some coffee from our fave coffee shop in college: O'Henry's. O'Henry's was the place where AMK learned to love coffee and where we would go for the best lattes and cappuccinos and a little live music. Sigh. She called and said that she wanted to get me a little souvenir from the trip. So, my plan is to brew some O'Henry's coffee, put on some 80s and 90s tunes and page through my photo albums...

While I do that, here is a little biography about my friendship with AMK (and the rest of the Bodacious Babes of Suite B ... and friends).

Anne Marie and I met at Samford during my very first semester there. We were in a dance troupe after failing to get into any of the other groups we auditioned for, we ended up being the two least enthusiastic dancers in the troupe. Well, it was something to do anyway...


NO! It wasn't THAT kind of dancing. Would you believe that this was our normal university attire? No? Well, we also participated in some campus singing/dancing competitions that required us to dress up in some clearly questionable outfits. Firey genie-like backup singer (me) meets 80s hair cave woman (AMK). Nice!

We quickly found out that we lived in the same dorm and would hang out on Sundays and watch movies in each other's room and usually take long Sunday naps. That is one thing that we both got so excited about on Sunday, crawling back into our jammies after lunch and snoozing for hours. Bliss...

The very next year, we became roommates and lived in this dorm:



His name was Ralph. Yep. We lived in a dorm with the word RALPH carved over the entryway. Nothing else. Just Ralph. Seriously.

We had some pretty fun suitemates in that dorm. It started out with Maggie and Jodi and then turned into Jodi and Christy. To round out the group, we had TaniaandChristy (yes, they were best friends, always together and thus, one name back in those days). TaniaandChristy (now, Tania and Christy) would have movie nights in their room and later, at their apartment, they would throw the best Halloween parties with good food and fun games.

Here is everyone (except Christy the suitemate - where are you Christy?)


Incidentally, Maggie is a very talented gal who, in this picture, is balancing that picture frame on her head to entertain us while we wait to be seated.

Oh, here's a picture with Christy the suite mate:


AMK and I were so close (and still are) that we would sometimes pose as one another at parties. I went as Anne Marie to her Sociology party when she couldn't make it that year. I wasn't a Sociology major nor was I a member of the Sociology club. But I went anyway, pouf-ing up my hair and donning her signature Winnie the Pooh sweatshirt. No one could even tell.

Here we are on our first day of our senior year. We decided to do "First day of school" pics like we did through grade school.


Can you tell which one I am? I think the red cast gives me away. ;)

We vowed to be roommates again after college, picking a place on the map and just up and moving there. We planned on living and working together and having fun as single girls in a big city. But AMK changed all that by getting married; couldn't be helped. So AMK became AMKT (for Trammell), but I couldn't get used to adding the T sound to the end of Aym-kuh. Hard enough.

I was the maid of honor at her wedding and it was so beautiful! She was the matron of honor at my wedding. We just had our babies two weeks apart last summer and I have yet to see Cooper, but when I do, he's in trouble! I'm going to smother him with kisses and hugs.

I am so sad that I missed the girls' weekend, but I plan on being there next time...

On the path...