Invasion of the UConnites

Or is it UConnians? UConnese? What the hell am I talking about? Well, people from UConn of course! That's University of Connecticut, if you haven't caught on yet.

I got my graduate degree from UConn. I spent four years there (why it took me four years to earn a Masters degree is another story entirely) and when you spend four years in close proximity with the same people every day, you develop some close bonds.

I'm more than a week behind here, so let's go back to the week after Tania left. My friend Kathryn calls me and says, basically, "Jason said you've started to talk about going out of town next weekend. You cannot. We're coming to visit you."

Um ... Yay! Wait, that doesn't quite get the point across ...
There. That's a bit better.

Anyway. Yes, I was thrilled that they were coming. Jason and Kathryn had been chatting, planning a surprise visit, but when I was considering heading up to DC that weekend, Kathryn made the call to tell me to stay put. Kathryn, Jessica and Molly made the trip and they arrived Friday afternoon (after driving most of the day and then missing the turn off for Woodberry). They were wiped, not surprisingly, from their day of travel, so we lay low Friday evening with pizza and beer. (Well, no beer for Sierra) (That's Kathryn in Sierra's toddler sunglasses. Kathryn has a small head. :-) )

The little one cooperated and stayed asleep so that I could stay up and chat with the girls. I must give big props to Molly, who is the "early to bed, early to rise" type. She hung with the rest of us 'til midnight or so, waaaaay later than her bedtime! ;-)

Saturday was one of those great vacation mornings where we all rolled out of bed one by one and hung out in our pajamas for awhile. I really hope my friends enjoyed their short break from grad school; it can definitely be grueling. We did our best impression of being like "the guys" in the afternoon with beer and pretzels over a game of cards. Good times. Then Jason watched Bits so Kathryn, Molly, Jess and I could head to C'ville sans baby.

First stop was the fabric store (come on, who doesn't love the fabric store?). Then we were off to the downtown mall. Since it was Saturday (not Sunday like my last visit there) the soup place I had been wanting to try was open. It was a good tip (thanks, Shari!); dinner was delicious!
We spent way too much just enough time at this great shop with all kinds of fun. Kathryn bought a stapler shaped like a piece of sushi to take home to her man (ha!), and Molly found the necklace to match her tiny peapod earrings that she loves. The vegetable jewelry is done by an artist in Connecticut (can't remember his name), but she had to leave Connecticut and come to Virginia to find it!
What? I always pose with giraffe sculptures in the street!

Then is was home again, homes again, where Sierra was still awake (damn!). She went down pretty easily, though, as did all of us, after our later night the night before.