this post will sound like another one

I was reading through 5 days worth of blog posts, just now, and i was reading one in particular, and seriously thought that Nilsa had read my mind and decided to blog on my life, instead of her own.  

As you may remember, i was meeting three people from Baylor, that were old friends.  The first one, was uneventful but good and fun, the second, not so much.  i was going into this one wondering what would come of it.  to be honest, i was wondering if it was really going to happen, given our past times that i was to meet her.  when i would text, i would write and say things like, "i don't know if you still are planning on meeting, but.....". 

so, needless to say, i was thrilled when it became a reality and we found ourselves driving to sedona, Az, to meet her. 

in college, we were BEST friends.  i mean, i had wondered how i hadn't had a connection like this with other people, and had the nerve to call them my best friends.  we were, what we called each other, "soulmate friends".  we were alike, but different, and it just worked.  we planned on living together our sophomore year, but she went through some stuff, left Baylor, and there you go. 

you know, in most cases, when people leave your life, you can look back and say, "i know exactly why that person is not in my life anymore".  with her, i could not. 

so, 19 years later, i found myself sitting with my mom and waiting for this girl, in a korean/vegetarian restaurant in sedona. 

she cried when she walked in, we hugged, hugged again, then again.  and it was just like before. 

she was gorgeous, as always, she was herself, as always, and just honest and real. 

we laughed about a lot of things.  i have so many memories of college, and they are little ones....she didn't remember hardly any of it, til i started telling my mom stories and then a light would click on for her and she'd start laughing so hard, she'd cry. 

she taught me about instant grits and we ate them as we sat in my dorm and watched "last of the mohicans" over and over again.  we ate diet almond cookies from the cafeteria together.  we laughed about the time that i questioned her about her make-up and she told me that she used mascara from 4 years ago and that was it.  she looked so natural all the time, so i asked her to see the tube of mascara, only to find that there was nothing inside, and likely hadn't been for 3 years.  we dressed her up in hair bows and shorts and high heels one time to see what it was really like to be a Baylor girl. 

in the end, when we left, the first thing my mom said was, "wow, she hasn't changed a bit" and that was the biggest compliment we could have paid.  have a good laugh at the family sitting behind us in the picture....i did.