Friday I'm In Love

Friday is here!! Usually that ushers in a sense of peace and relaxation. Not this weekend. Today finds me playing catch up with all things that were put on the back burner while I was away, yesterday. I also have more grad parties, plans for Saturday night and the continuing of my Summer 2010 Project List.

In my ever changing moods, I remember being a lot younger and Friday meant that it was just a few short hours until the magic of Friday nights!! Friday nights used to be the most fun for going out, in my opinion. They were more fun than Saturday nights for some reason. Maybe because Friday was the initial decompressing from the week and with the hint of anything being possible that hung in the Friday night air made it more exciting. Now, Friday nights usually are the nights I look forward to, at home, with Mr. Man, and Saturday nights are now my exciting nights out with him and with friends.

I think my mind is stuck on Friday nights after the college visit with the cheerleader, yesterday. Being on a campus always transports my mind back to my college life in the ole dark ages, er, the early 1980s. Actually, during our individual tour, yesterday, the girl who was our tour guide made ME want to register as a freshman all over again!! She was a cute and excited girl who was in love with her college. So, as she and the cheerleader walked and talked, in front of me, I was trying not to let my mouth hang open at all of the new offerings of campus life that we did not have in 1982. First up....dorm living. I mean, dorm room decor and living is now one big business!! No more showing up on freshman moving in day with a collection of plastic milk crates, rock star posters and a tiny tv and stereo. You actually plan your room decor and there is every service, online, to help you do that. Hey, one company even advertised delivering your entire decorating theme right to your room....amazing!

State of the art recreation buildings. I mean, if exam stress is getting you down, sign up for a message therapy session!! If you want to work out, you have about 50 million ways to do so in the three tiered recreation building. In need of java, no fear, there are 5 coffee houses on campus. There are kitchens on dorm floors, every type of eating establishment on campus, sorority houses that are mansions and construction is being done for more sorority/fraternity mansions so that it can be a Greek village. Wow...gone are the days of falling down frat houses that hosted some of the best parties while the house shook and almost fell to the ground.

There is also a required course that all freshman have to take...get this...it's a course on...How To Be A Freshman and Surviving The First Year. In 1982, your parents got out of the car long enough to deposit you, your milk crates, clothing and a small wad of cash and a quick...Good luck, don't call collect and don't come home til Thanksgiving. The next sound you heard were tires screeching as they made their way out of campus. Ok....nobody told us how to be freshmen. We actually solved the big freshman mystery all by ourselves.

Some things don't change, though. Like very teen that has come before the cheerleader, she thinks she knows college stuff. The stuff that I ask questions about and lecture her about are...LAME...with a capital L. So, all in all, maybe it is a good thing to have that handy freshman tutorial class.

All in all, the day was good. We had 6 hours, round trip, in the car to have both fun conversations and heated arguments. The Department of Arts is where she will be studying if this is where she chooses to go and is accepted. Their fashion program is renowned. I am sending her back, in the fall, to shadow the department for a day. Lame idea, in her mind, I am sure. But, like I told her, her new job is now working towards becoming good freshman material. My job is to continue to kick her booty, just like I have for the past years. A mother's job is never done...this sentiment now rings true even more so now, in my mind.

So, yes, being back on a campus, brought back so many fond memories of my own college life. Friday afternoons would find us all racing back to dorm rooms to shower and change and walk the steep hills down to our college town. Happy hours started at 4pm and you didn't want to be late. I will keep this nugget of information tucked away in my own private memory bank. Some things just don't need to be shared with the cheerleader. But, these memories of Friday nights have always made me love the idea of Friday and all of the possibilities that await you for the weekend.

Enjoy your Friday!!